Pokemon: Guardians of Light IV- Ancestral Paths
by SilyaBeeodess
Summary: Months after the events of the Dark Crater, Lira, Ri, and the rest of Team Crusade are forced to halt their investigations in order to help uncover the mystery behind the ever-present disasters that remain thanks to the extensive damage done to time-space, the road ahead taking them to strangely familiar lands and unlocking secrets long kept buried.
1. Searching

There's no such thing as a graceful descent into darkness. Yet here I am, diving right into it nonetheless—the rope braced under me and tightened around my waist the only thing to keep my cargo and I from plummeting into the unknown, shadowy depths of the ruins below. The hole within the floor above only faintly illuminates the seemingly bottomless drop, but the Aura Sphere I balance in one hand paints the nearby walls and their intricate hieroglyphs in a vivid, blue light. Ancient, worn faces etched into the stone stare back at mine, as if they're cursing me for disturbing their millennium-long slumber.

It's not even strange anymore to think of how used to it I am. However, unfortunately for my youngest teammate, that's far from the case. The tiny Shaymin squirms to bury herself deeper within the bag cradled within my lap and I wrap my spare arm even tighter around them both to reassure her. Ri and I have helped her train and taken her on a number of jobs with us, but this is really her first major exploration since she began her apprenticeship at Wigglytuff's Guild.

I barely notice it at first, but a familiar shadow soon drops over us. "Are you two still ok?" my partner calls down from above.

"We're fine, but we're not there yet," I shout in reply, "Keep lowering us." The bundle in my hold squirms a second time at this, but I'm not about to retreat unless she asks me to. Her kind is used to open skies, so I can't imagine she's enjoying this much, but if she's going to be a member of our team than she needs to be braced to handle anything. So I only ask, "How are you holding up, Azalea?"

I can't see much more than a pair of eyes glistening up at me in the dim light, but I can spot both the nervousness and resolve in them. "I'll be fine," she answers softly, "Really, I'm just a little anxious is all."

Right… Although her aura says otherwise, I'll pretend to take her word for it. Besides, we have work to do.

Nothing more is said as we're lowered further toward the heart of the Concealed Ruins, the massive, hidden temple that Ri and I uncovered on an exploration with Team Charm earlier in the year. Thanks to Darkrai's plot, we never got the chance to investigate it until just a few weeks ago—the passing months since he vanished spent hunting him down and cleaning up after his mess. Worrying if or _when_ he'll come back to strike again…

There's been no sign him, but that still hasn't afforded us a moment's calm. Time and space struggle to maintain a fragile balance as the world desperately tries to fix itself. There's no telling when the next disaster might hit. And, even with all my memories come back to me, I'm right back where I started looking for answers.

Cresselia handles herself, so at least there's one less worry off our chests. While, Ri, the rest of our team, and I keep up our investigations on top of our regular work as explorers, she taken the liberty of searching for any clues as to where Darkrai could be by herself. She visits us in dreams sometimes, usually just to give the regular update that she can't find anything, but still…

The rope tugs to a halt and there's a shout from above that they need to knot another cord to it if we're going down any further. We wait.

As I said, all of us in Team Crusade have been exploring the Concealed Ruins for weeks now, but that doesn't mean we're alone: We've made it a full expedition by enlisting the Guild's help and our friends followed us across the Grass Continent not long after we left Treasure Town. The difference this time, however, is that we're no longer apprentices receiving direct orders on where to be or what to do from Chatot or the Guildmaster. Actually, as the ones who discovered this place, Ri and I were told that we had to step up and take control of the operation ourselves.

It's an honor—especially given how young we still are—but I don't think either of us is honestly all that thrilled about it. I can't forget Wigglytuff pulling us both aside the first day they arrived here to set up camp. We had given him a report on how the mission was going, as expected, and then he asked _us_ what we wanted _him_ and the others to do next. In no way were we ready for that, but he wouldn't take no for an answer.

 _I have complete faith in the both of you!_ he had beamed, flashing his usual, bubbly smile. Amazing how after all we've been through something like this can still rattle us, because I'm not sure if we can actually pull it off… It wasn't all that long ago when we were just apprentices ourselves, and a part of me still can't believe that we graduated already. How are we supposed to take charge of the very same people we trained alongside and who taught _us_ so much first?

No. Subtly dropping my gaze, I look back once more at Azalea as we begin to descend yet again. I don't think that Ri and I are ready to lead at all. Sure, we both can step up when we have to, but this is different. Ri _could_ do it, but he still lacks the confidence to really take control. And as for me, well… I'm just not the person I was when I led the Resistance in the Dark Future. It's as though, somehow, by willing to give up everything, I stopped caring about things like risks and inexperience in order to focus on what had to be done.

Now though, there's far less for me to give up on and nothing I'm willing to lose. The stakes have always been the same—our homes, our lives, our world—but now I can't make the same sacrifices that I once did so easily. Not myself. Certainly not anyone that I care about. If I take the lead and I make a choice that gambles them away, there's no way that I could move past it. And I've failed so many times already, with Grovyle, and Ri, and Manaphy—!

I'm not only an explorer, I'm a Guardian of Light. There are responsibilities that I have to accept. I just wish that they'd stop piling up like this before I start to lose pace of them all. We're just not as ready as everyone else thinks we are—not for this. Not like the world's ever given us much of a chance to prepare ourselves for anything…

Day by day, I find myself leaning more on a simple bit of sage advice. When everything is falling apart around you, there's only one thing you can really do: Brace yourself. Funny to think though how it seems like it's easier to do that when the world's falling to ruin than it is when taking the lead for our friends.

Finally, we touch ground. No sooner have my toes scraped against its dusty surface, I clumsily reach up to tug twice on the rope to give the signal to stop lowering it. "Time to get to work," I murmur, sliding Azalea and the Treasure Bag by my feet before I start to fumble with the knots to untie myself. She does as I told her to earlier, sticking close to me, and I intensify the power of my Aura Sphere to cast a brighter light on our surroundings.

It's not like we're looking for anything specific—we don't even know why this place exists to begin with—but we've been trying to comb every inch of it for anything useful. If there's one thing we do know about this place, it's that it predates any written history any of us know about. There's no telling what kind of secrets might be locked away here. Maybe there's even something that could help us figure out what to do about the world's still fragile balance.

"See anything good?" Loudred impatiently shouts down at us. Normally, he'd team up with Diglett, but when we found that hole to this part of the temple, we asked him to give us some extra muscle in case we needed to lift anything large back up. As for Diglett, he and his dad could probably dig a series of tunnels that could uncover anything about this place, but it's so old that any amount of damage done could risk burying us alive. We have them reinforcing parts of the temple's structure to make sure this place doesn't fall on top of anyone.

"Nothing yet!" I take a look around. I was hoping we'd uncovered some new passageway, but this seems just to be another one of the many wide chambers that we've come across so far. Each of them are always filled with their own treasures of a sort, but never anything that really catches our eye. From the decorum of the space to the ruined fabric draped along a lump of stone, and thatched padding only barely recognizable beneath a layer of mold, this looks like it was once probably a bedchamber—maybe for someone important. There's a wide set of double doors, but when I walk over to them, I can tell that they're blocked on the other side. Likely a cave-in—which doesn't help my suspicions on how unstable the structure of the temple could be.

"Well, try to hurry it up! Chimecho's gotta be done with dinner soon and I'm half-starved!"

"Really? In that case, I think I'll take my sweet time!" I snark back.

"Like you'd wait either!"

"Just nibble on an Energy Root!"

All during our mild bickering, I continue my exploration of the room. Beyond the tattered fabric on the 'bed' and the walls, pottery and chests are strewn about the area. I can't imagine finding much in them that's worth anything though, given the state they're in. Nevertheless, I pick one of the few ones my size and carry it over to the rope—placing it within the sling and securing it before tugging on the cord only once this time and watching as it's pulled upward.

"What kind of Pokemon do you think built this place anyway?" Azalea asks, staring at one of the much larger chests with a sheepish expression. I know how she feels. Anywhere else, if Ri and I were to find a treasure box, the biggest ones would have to be carried by the both of us together. Not that there aren't exceptions, but most of the ones we've seen here are so massive that the two of us could easily lock ourselves inside them if we wanted to. As if the size of them alone wasn't unnerving enough, the one beside us has a latch in the shape of a face distorted from the wear of the years.

"Big ones," I shrug, "Maybe Gollurk." Actually, some of the doorways are just over half the size of one, but we've seen plenty of murals depicting them, the ceilings are usually high enough, and I know chests like these would be paperweights to their species. Besides that, most of the other relics that we've found suit bipedal Pokemon the most.

Strange as it is, we've only really seen a few of them around here. The area is fairly isolated—the closest village about an hours' trek toward the northeast—and the Pokemon that live in it aren't all that diverse: Gollett, Shuppet, Baltoy, and Pidgey just to name a few. I can't see many of them making use of a place like this, no matter what the murals and glyphs say.

If I'm being honest, the temple itself seems a little too well-made for any normal Pokemon, nevermind its age. It reminds me of the ones we saw in the Hidden Land and the Spacial Rift. Given that we had to fight a Regigigas to get to it though, I guess it's not all that surprising—and he and the other titans have been depicted along these walls plenty enough themselves. We're inside the ruins of a legendary's keep.

I'm more stunned to find that there aren't any Unown buzzing around here like they were in Aegis Cave, but I'll count that as a blessing rather than another question to add to the swarm. Beats having to chase them down like we did before for spelling practice…

Something catches my eye. Near the 'bed,' covered by sheets of once luxurious cloth, I spot the texture of wood. Whatever is buried beneath there, it's larger than the surrounding chests—tall enough that the lip of it inches above me. Anything this big usually would be made out of some kind of stonework, so I can't resist pulling back on the heavy fabric to reveal it.

I have to be careful. It's not like we're going to have much want or use out of these, but they're still artifacts by anyone's standards. I don't know how deteriorated they've become through the unknown ages and a part of me can't help but grimace at the inconvenience.

Little by little, the cloth is tugged away while the wood beneath it groans at every slight shift. Eventually, with Azalea's help, the bulk of the fabric is set in a careful pile on the ground and what's left uncovered is a worn, ornate desk lined with empty racks. At first glance, the intricate detailing of the woodwork seems to be all there is to it, but on closer inspection I find an open crevice from a broken, hidden cabinet along the bottom. I run my fingers against it tentatively until I'm able to slip them through the widest part of the gap: I still can't manage to fit my hand all the way through though, and so—with a huff—I pull the door back.

 _Snap!_ No matter how careful I try to be, wood splinters at the motion. I inwardly wince, but continue until I've just enough of an opening to reach inside. I feel papers and old leather—documents of some kind that no doubt Dusknoir would be happy to get his hands on with as little as he's been able to do with his expertise this expedition—but my eyes widen at the real prize. Metal. Something relatively small and cold to the touch. And from the shape of it, it's a key.

My heart nearly skips a beat and all at once my relative frustration is batted away by an explorer's lust toward a new find. In this place that was already so well hidden and protected before Ri and I discovered it, in which the doors are usually made of heavy stone and left unlocked and most of the chests are easily opened, to find a key is its own treasure. We've only managed to find a handful, and to find one kept secret like this one… It must be able to unlock something important!

"It looks like we might just have a long night ahead of us, guys!" I shout for my companions above us to hear. I can feel my entire body spark to life when I wriggle my hand back out of the cabinet with the treasure. At the sight of it, Azalea's own face lights up, but—enclosing my hand around the key—I bring one finger to my lips to keep her quiet. Already I can hear Loudred's renewed complaints:

"Are you kidding me?! If there's that much junk down there, we can just get it out tomorrow! Better yet, we can just find new junk literally _anywhere else_ in this heap of rubble!"

All while he continues his rants, I pick back up the work on inching the cabinet door further and further open without breaking it. It takes some doing, but, finally, I'm able to get the documents out as well—pulling them out onto the flat of my palm so that they won't bend. Meanwhile, Azalea dashes to where we left the Treasure Bag: She returns scooting over a thin, but wide container made of plywood that I neatly settle the papers into with the same care I would use if I was tucking in a baby.

I want to investigate this room some more to figure out who might've stayed here, but for now this is enough. More than enough! Gathering a few more things, Azalea and I make our way back over to the rope as it descends into view. "Well, long hours are just a part of the job," I call up before I begin to set the next load, "Besides, we'll be too busy celebrating to try getting any sleep!"

All at once, the Normal-type's shouts end in a sputtering halt. Then the anxious questions and cheers come after.


	2. Shaken Foundations

The discovery of the bedchamber reignited a spark in everyone that the weeks of endless, fruitless, restless searching had tried to stifle out. Not the usual relics, not the rotting goods that practically disintegrate in our hands when we try to examine them: A whole room of treasures relatively untouched by the hands of time due to its isolation underground: And if we could just break through the passageway connected to it, who knows else what we could find!

There was plenty in the sealed chests that we found: Tightened vials of concoctions labeled in the language of the Unown and detailed with various symbols, a few scrolls to add to the other documents, tools made from stone and ivory. Even still, the key remains the most promising—and bewildering—of the finds. When we showed it to Dusknoir, he said that ancient locks and keys were commonly made out of wood instead of metal, so it's rare to find one at all, much less one made out of bronze as ours is. That and the intricate patterns the wrap around across its stem show a careful amount of consideration was given when it was made. Depending on who owned it, it might just be a wasted luxury from someone who had more money than sense—the room seemed to hint that a person of some high authority stayed there anyway. But I don't think that's the case.

I guess we'll know if we find any more: If it was just a luxury of a bygone age, then there's a greater chance that there are others like it. If not, then who knows what it'll lead to.

"You aren't anxious, are you?" Ri teases me, snapping me out of my musings. I've been so deep in my own thoughts that I've started fiddling with the strap of our bag. "We get to take a break for once: I think you can relax for just a few hours."

I grin, but I honestly don't think so. "I think focusing on our work's been the only way that I _can_ relax."

Really, I should probably at least _try_ to calm down a bit. To celebrate our small success, a lot of us ended up travelling to the nearby village after dinner for a night out. Within about a week, the villagers will be having their annual harvest festival, but they've already set up a lot of stalls for the event. Being a small and pretty isolated community, I guess most of them are eager for any kind of excitement. Treasure Town has its own traditions and celebrations, but it's always nice when you get to participate in others. I really want to enjoy tonight: It's just hard, having so much on my mind.

Giving me an empathizing smile, Ri tugs at my hand, "Well, focus on having fun for a bit. I think both of us could use a chance to breathe."

He takes the lead through the fairly busy streets lined by multilevel terracotta buildings with simple, geometric patterns along their overall flat rooftops and the rows of tented stalls that dot them, looking around to find something for the two of us to do. The scent of heavy spices tickles my nose from the range of food booths we pass by, and a range of colors parade around us from the works of craftsmen—earthen, painted pottery; jewelry made from polychromatic stones; neatly stitched fabrics; and all sorts of glass trinkets that sparkle in the evening light.

Kids run around playing games from what few have been set up this early ahead of time and it isn't long before one of these stalls catches my eye: A ring-toss game with all kinds of prizes set randomly on a table in the back. The brief, prolonged attention to it is all it takes for us to veer that way and the Nidoqueen standing at it greets us with a hand on her hip, "If it isn't the littlest heroes! Haven't seen you two since your friends showed up. Out on a supply run, or are you actually gonna stick around town for a while?"

Laying low would be impossible for a new face in a place like this, especially in our team's case. Of course we know how our names have spread all over the continent thanks to the incident with the Time Gears. And what happened with Darkrai only kept the news going: Two young apprentices traveled into the future, solved an age-old legend, and saved the world. The fame is weird for us though.

That goes for Ri and me in particular as the youngest members of our team—who are still considered by a lot of people as _baby_ Pokemon at that! So when they find out that we're just a pair of teenagers barely half the size of most of our enemies, we get some pretty… interesting, reactions. A lot of people still respect us—kids in particular—but there are still moments when I'd rather be just another blank face in the crowd, like after discovering the slew of nicknames we didn't even know we had: The Littlest Heroes, the Kid Crusaders, the Copycat Couple… Anytime we meet anyone new, I look forward to the point where they finally get used to us so we're past all of it…

At first, we used to come here every week or two to get food and other supplies; however, ever since some of the other Guild members showed up to help our investigation, we haven't come to town as often since we usually have to keep track of everyone either in the Concealed Ruins or at our campsite not far from it. I'd be lying if I said sticking in the same place for so long hadn't made me antsy. There's not much to see here, but the fresh air is a welcome change after you've been cooped under layers of stone for a while. The investigation has gone on long enough by now so that the people here know us fairly well too, so it's easily become like a second home.

"We had some good luck today, so we figured we'd celebrate," my partner explains for us both as I fish around inside our bag for our money pouch. "It's great to get out for a change."

"I'll bet," she chuckles with a toothy grin, "You both seem like a real couple of go-getters."

"We'll take two sets of rings please."

We're both handed five rings each. It doesn't cost that much to play, but then the prizes aren't exactly all that big either, mostly just little things like bags of rock candy and other sweets, charms and toys that could fit in the palm of your hand, and a good range of odd items that we could probably get at the Kecleon Brothers' shop. It doesn't stop me from looking them all over either though, trying to decide what to aim for.

I've hardly thrown my first ring by the time Ri's finished playing already, all but one of his own looping around the prizes farther from us. I can't help but smirk, shaking my head as I watch Nidoqueen's bewildered expression from the corner of my eye. Except when it comes to my Aura Spheres, Ri's always had the better aim out of the two of us: Like with most other things though, he's oblivious to just how good he actually is. He accepts his winnings so casually that he might as well have traded for them at the recycle station at _Spinda's._

And then, while I've still got my second ring in my hands, he just wanders off to the next stall less than a meter to the left. There's a bit of a line, so he has to move back, and once he's out of earshot Nidoqueen lowers down to my level to mumble with a disbelieved snort, "You don't think he'll keep coming back to play, right? I don't want to lose everything I've got before the festival's even here."

"I'll keep his attention away from the booth if it looks like it," I laugh in reply.

I manage to do well at it myself—all of my rings surprisingly managing to hit something—but I mostly aim for the small stuff in the front: A small bag of chocolates, another bag of chestnuts, a ribbon I'll probably just give to Azalea or Celebi, an Iron, and a palm-sized Baltoy doll. By the time I'm done, I turn around to find Ri's made it back with two slices of some kind of flatbread dessert covered in cinnamon.

We slip through the crowd a second time and find a small haven from the masses at the bend of a tiny alleyway to enjoy them, trying to peer above the buildings to see how long we've got until sundown or if we can spot anyone else from our group. Once we reached the village, everyone split off to do their own things, so they could be anywhere, but we're supposed to meet up later in the night. Given how the people are already starting to thin out as the desert's cold, night air begins to creep in and the long walk back to camp, I can't imagine we'll be staying out too late anyway.

"What do you think Celebi and Grovyle are doing right now?" Ri asks halfway through his snack as we sit on the earth with our backs to the wall.

"I have no idea," I shrug, finishing off another bite myself, "but I'm kind of hoping that they're with Dusknoir. The way he is, he'll probably just go ahead and leave without telling anyone if someone's _not_ with him."

My partner offers a firm nod of agreement, but what I'm saying's only half-true. Yeah, there's no doubt Dusknoir would pull something like that, but it's not my biggest concern and he knows it. I've known it for a long time now, but it's just becoming more and more obvious by the day. To everyone now.

Celebi's always had a crush on Grovyle: Considering how she's practically always had hearts in her eyes every time she's with him, there's not a soul that could deny it. And even in the Dark Future, I knew that Grovyle… kind of always liked her back, even if that sort of thing completely went over his own head. I'd tease him for it sometimes, but despite how good he is at reading other people, he's always been clueless to that sort of thing. Back then I thought it was funny, and whether because I was just too oblivious myself to think about it or because I was too numb with the thought that none of it would matter since we were all going to vanish anyway, it never really crossed my mind what it would be like if they actually _did_ fall in love.

No matter the timeline, for as long as I've known Grovyle he's stayed aloof: He's got a good heart and he cares about what happens to others deeply, but he's never really let people get too close to him to form any solid attachments—not except with me, anyway. I guess because he's always had to be that way. It probably never even once occurred to him what falling in love would be like. But things are different now. We're all safe and together, and all of the dangers that've loomed over us for so long are gone. We're not alone anymore and we're stronger than we've ever been. We can actually have a future, and he doesn't have to keep his guard up as much any more worrying about what could happen to any of us.

And I think he's started realizing that. Where before, he'd team up with Celebi on assignment because it was the logical thing to do and he knew how close I already was with Ri, he's slowly begun to spend more time just to be alone with her. He's not as outwardly stern as he used to be either and he smiles when they talk just for the sake of talking. He talks about her to me more often too. He's likely still as clueless as ever, but I know it'll have to dawn on him sooner or later. When it does, I can only imagine how fast things are going to go from there.

I'm happy for him—I am for them _both_ —it's just all so new to me too. For the longest while, I remember that Grovyle and I just kind of lived in our own, little circle. We had the Resistance and in the corrected future we had Max, Gardevoir, and our other teammates, but we were the first to really get close as a team. As a family of _two_. Celebi's already family to us anyway, but it's just… different. Maybe it's just my turn now to know what it's like for our circle to get a little bigger and for me to possibly need to step back.

Arceus, if they _do_ get together, that'll make Celebi my older sister! I snort: Now that's kind of a scary thought…

Ri scoots a little closer to me and I lean against him as his wraps his free arm around my shoulders. It'll be different, but it'll be fine. I was the one to take that kind of big step first anyway, I know it won't change Grovyle's and my relationship, and I'm far from alone myself.

Tilting my face into his chest, I grumble, "It's not fair, you know… We need to get Dusknoir a girlfriend. Maybe then he'll stop being such a recluse."

He twists a lock of my hair between his fingers playfully, "You know he'd kill us if we set him up with someone."

"True, but he already tried that, so we know he can't actually do it."

The both of us chuckling to ourselves at that, we're content for the moment to just stay as we are. I can feel myself nodding off with every brush of his fingers against my shoulder as he continues to toy with my hair and I close my eyes with a faint, eased hum. The rise and fall of my chest soon matches the pace of his own and I feel him brace his chin against my head.

Even with all of the chaos, I have my own future to look forward to. I still don't want to evolve just yet, but Ri and I still keep up our training for the day when we eventually do. Since we've graduated so early, we've been talking about where we're going to go now as explorers after we've finished our work at the Concealer Ruins: We want to see the other continents, but we're not sure if we want to be so far away from home for any great length of time. Of course we want to climb up the ranks as much as we can within the Exploration Team Federation: We're just not sure how far or what we're going to do if and when we get there.

Then there's the "Secret Rank" that Scizor gave us and we still have no idea what it's about. No one's tried to contact us since we got that first, vague message: _SRs, please standby._ There's so much going on already that it's probably for the best, so I'm not complaining. The only issue is that there are times when we wonder what we got ourselves into. I highly doubt that Scizor would drag us into anything devious or dangerous, but getting some kind of honor when we don't even know what it is is unsatisfying to say the least.

Well, it's nice to imagine what life could be like for us—wherever we might end up. If we've settled on any big decisions for the future, it's that we think we want to stay in Treasure Town. In my case, it's pretty much the only home I've known in this time: In Ri's case, he's lived there for so long now that he's already _made_ it his home. I'm sure we'll end up making plenty of trips to his hometown, but for now we like staying at the Guild and we want our base to be Sharpedo Bluff. We haven't had a chance to work on it since we tried adding that second room in the spring, but I know we'll figure something out. I mean, maybe someday it could end up just being me and Ri there, but we want there to be plenty of room for the whole team to live and conduct our work in.

Possibilities follow me as I lull into a subconscious trance only to be shattered by a sudden, sharp jolt that rocks us both as if something heavy had slammed into the other side of the wall. It's enough that the pebbles around us even tremble in reaction. We both sit up in alarm, right in sync to the startled cries of pedestrians around us—all of us sharing the same confused and disturbed look.

We don't know what's happening, but we know we need to get moving. As fast as we can, we pull each other up onto our feet just as another tremor washes over us, this time seemingly rocking the very ground we stand on. In the distance, I hear more screaming and the shatter of glass and pottery as the vendors' wares are rattled to the earth. People panic. Those that can fly away. Others run, trying to take cover wherever there's any while all the same there's a bit of truth reflected in all of our horrified stares that admits there's no where we can run to.

The jarring quickly gets worse—matching the tremendous thunder of a stampede. Tents begin to loosen and collapse and dust rains from the walls around us. Ri and I dive away from the alley and into the open streets nearby, but we just end up getting swept into the river of Pokemon doing all they can to get to safety.

And then the earth begins to split apart around us.


	3. As the Dust Clears

"Lira, find cover!"

There is none. I barely hear my partner's warning above the roar of the earth and the horrified screams of those around us as the road and surrounding buildings begin to break apart. Many fall to their knees behind what little, stable shelter is nearby: Others charge from the collapsing structures into the already crowded, panicked mob. I clasp Ri's hand like a lifeline so we won't be separated from the rampaging mass of bodies and he pulls me to his side—his free arm braced around my hips—as Pokemon stampede around us. I grimace in pain as the hard-plating of a Yamask's mask rams into my shoulder and Ri and I both veer out of the way as a charging Donphan surges by.

A large pot of steaming broth falls to the ground from a nearby stall and rolls past our feet, followed by cords of dried herbs and vegetables hanging from the wooden beams that snap apart above us. The wood slams into a nearby fire and launches flames high into the air with such a burst of fury that I'm surprised nothing else catches around it.

"Where are the others?!" I scream. They're out in the middle of this: They could be anywhere!

"I-I don't know!" Ri's voice drips with equal terror.

Dust explodes from behind us and the tremors only get worse. We duck behind the stall's panels, partially shielding ourselves from the sheets of earth that crack apart from one of the buildings. In the distance, more horrified cried rise from the masses as a two-story is leveled to the ground—and I can see another fire starting up not too far from the collapse.

A young Sandshrew stumbles out from the ground and we both reach out to drag him to us: He's in such turmoil—shivering and keening from the surrounding chaos—that he at first doesn't even register that we're trying to help and fights back before we can pull him to safety. Another Ground-type—a Phanpy—rounds the stall from the opposite side and joins us in no better a state.

There has to be something we can do! I look around for any other realm of safety within the swirl of madness, eventually spotting at least part of a building that seems relatively stable: While a part of it has already collapsed, it has a good rock foundation around its based and a short, arched path that leads into the quad at its center. I rise up, bracing myself against one of the stall's surviving posts with my legs held apart, wildly motioning Pokemon onward, "Over there! Get over there! It's safer!"

But of course they don't hear me. I doubt anyone could even hear themselves _think_ right now. And so I start grabbing people, plucking limbs from the crowd and pulling them toward me, screaming orders like a mantra as I shove them on, "Over there, over there! Hurry!"

Another wave of dust crashes over us, this one larger than the last—enough to blind us and send the Pokemon into an even bigger fit of terror. I squeeze my eyes and lips tightly shut, ducking my head to hide my face from the blast as bits of rock tear at my skin. The earth bucks. Another person rams into my side as they run past me. Something heavy falls a meter or so to my left, narrowly missing the people that veer around it.

When the dust clears just a little, I crack one eye open again to see the hulking figure of an Onyx bound through the crowd on the other side of the street only to loop back around the short distance and keep the Pokemon nearby stabled with his body—shielding them. Someone grabs the broth pot from earlier, pulling it over them as a kind of improvised helmet. Half of his attention on channeling the currents of people to safety and around the small group that have now gathered nearby us, Ri pulls me back down to the earth. I slide down the beam, my body as shaky as the wavering structures that still somehow manage to hold themselves up against the calamity.

I can't even tell what's safe anymore! Out here, we're lucky if we don't get trampled, swept up in the growing fires, or crushed by debris: Inside though, there's no one to retreat if the buildings collapse! Nature leaves us helpless. So we brace ourselves.

It probably only lasts somewhere around five minutes total, but it feels like an eternity until everything's calmed down. Even then, with the fires still going, it's far from over. The dust settles. The atmosphere turns disturbingly quiet. The buildings stop shaking for the most part. But the peace we enjoyed only a brief moment ago is lost.

* * *

Of course those of us from Wigglytuff's Guild are among the first responders. By the time Ri and I have helped contain the fires until what few Water-types that live here could come to the scene and have regrouped with the others, Wigglytuff and Chatot have already established an on-the-spot clinic with a pair of Bellossom. Thankfully, no one was killed, but not everyone walked out of the mess unscathed. I even had to get my shoulder checked, but luckily nothing tore. It'll just probably be sore for a day or two, just like Ri's arm and side from the same sort of beating he took from the stampede.

And as much as it's stark reminder of how unprepared we are, I'm incredibly happy when the Guildmaster takes control of the situation and starts giving orders. Almost as soon as we've checked in, Ri and I are sent out into the streets again, this time to help locate any missing civilians and get anyone trapped on the upper levels of buildings back down to solid ground.

Or as solid as it can be, given what happened. The earthquake completely distorted the village, almost beyond recognition. The sight of it makes me worry about the state of our camp and the Concealed Ruins: Even if everyone here's relatively ok, we may go back to find all of our work destroyed.

I just don't understand it. With as many Ground and Rock-type Pokemon that live here, shouldn't any of them have been able to tell ahead of time that something like this might happen? And what about the Absol that constantly roam the land—their abilities allow them to sense disaster in advance, so how come no one ever spotted any nearby? I don't want to believe it, but my mind echoes one of Cresselia's many warnings that she's given us in dreams ever since our battle against Darkrai in the Dark Crater:

" _Darkrai's plotting spanned over many years in secret," she had said, "There's no telling when he decided to distort the world's balance by affecting time or space, or what powers he awakened during that time. As you remember, his strength was beyond that for his species. I don't envision the balance to correct itself easily, not in the least until Dialga and Palkia have restored order to their own realms—and that in itself will take a long while. Whatever occurs as a result of his actions, you must be prepared to set it right."_

Right… As though attempting to destroy time hadn't been bad enough, whatever damage he caused to the Spatial Realm was enough to throw Palkia into a fiery rage. Time and space… The only thing he didn't have the chance to break was the was the antimatter-fueled world under Girantina's domain—and the last thing I want right now is to go after the worst of the Dimensional Trio of legendaries, specifically known in stories for being the most violent of the bunch. And if that happens, we're sending in Dusknoir. Ri and I have fought enough legendaries for one lifetime: It's time for he and the others to have another go at it!

"A pokè for your thoughts?" Ri teases me, bumping into my hip as we climb the dark stairwell of our of the larger buildings in town. By now, the sun has set, so we only have the dim moonlight filtering through the thin slants in the wall, my Aura Sphere, and his aura staff to light our way. It's getting late, but I don't think anyone of us—either on our team or in the Guild—would be fine with leaving the village as things are.

"Alright…" I murmur with a smirk. For not the first time that evening, we come across a ruined section of the stairwell, where enough steps have broken apart to leave a massive gap for us to jump across. It's not the worst—that would probably go to the roost where all of the steps had been little more than wooden planks jutting out of the wall—but it's enough of a leap for us to be careful across it. "This reminds me _way_ too much of going up Temporal Tower."

Ri's the first to make the jump, using his staff to help drag his weight over the edge of the gap. "You don't have to tell me why," he grunts as he straightens himself back up, "Old, dusty passages in a half-ruined structure, the world falling apart around us… And to think things were simpler back then compared to now." He taps his staff against the wall. "I'm serious though: What's on your mind?"

I lunge up the gap next, my partner bracing me by taking my hand in his own as I land. "The usual?" I answer as we continue up the brief walk to the next floor, "What we're supposed to do now, how everything just keeps happening all over again no matter how many times we try to fix things, like… like _this_ …" I kick a stone at my feet, hesitating for a moment before I continue, "I don't get how it hasn't driven you crazy."

"I don't think I've ever said it didn't…" he shrugs, looking down at his feet, "I don't like having to wait for things like this to keep happening any more than you do. I mean, when Cresselia joined the team, I thought we could at least get some answers from her, but it's like she's not going to talk about what we are any more than what we already know. At least with her focusing on finding Darkrai though, it's one less thing for us to worry about."

"Yeah, but this time, we don't even have a lead." When time was stopping, we at least knew that the Time Gears were involved. When Darkrai began to distort space, he came after us personally, so we didn't have to track him down. With him missing though—and worse, if he's lost his memory like I lost mine—we don't have the first clue how to stop the next wave of disasters from happening.

"Wigglytuff's already contacted the Expedition Team Federation for anything they can dig up," he reassures me, "We just have to wait and see what we can find on our own. Isn't that what you and Grovyle did anyway in the Dark Future when you were trying to figure out how to stop the Planet's Paralysis in the first place?"

 _Yeah, all thanks to your help…_ I want to remind him. But I don't. I know he feels pressured at times to live up to the hero that we knew his future-self to be. I think sometimes Grovyle forgets, because he's expecting our leader. I think, deep down, sometimes I'm expecting that too, so I have to stop myself from blurring who he is and who he was in that future together. If he feels as lost as I do with all that hangs over us, then I'm not going to add another weight to that.

We turn the corner to where we had sensed the nearest aura signature, which leads us into a long hall splitting off into eight rooms. This place is basically a boarding house: Lots of residential rooms a lot like the Guild's sleeping quarters, but larger, meant for temporary and permanent tenants alike; with a communal kitchen, dining hall, and recreation area on the first floor. I don't think all that many people actually stay here, but I can see it coming in handy when a group as big as the one we've brought with us from the Guild shows up for a long stay for work. For now though, the floor seems largely empty: There are others still inside the building on different levels, but only one to a few besides us on this one.

Each floor has a tall window carved out at the end of each hall. I walk up and open the shudders to peer down at the streets below, dotted with lights from the Pokemon waiting to catch whoever can't come down the stairs with us by using a strong net webbed together by the local Nincada. It must be at least four stories up and there's still another two to go, not counting the roof. The sight of my Aura Sphere signals the team over with the net to prepare them in advance. Meanwhile, Ri knocks on the door of one of the rooms. "Hello in there?" he calls through the wood, "It's Team Crusade. We're an exploration team from Wigglytuff's Guild, the ones excavating the Concealed Ruins? It's going to be ok now: We're coming in."

With the surprise earthquake having rattled everyone, my partner's been careful to give anyone this kind of head's up before walking in on them. You never know who'll lash out just because they're afraid. The door's a little wedged in, but a bit of force knocks it open on the first attempt. Someone's lit a candle over in one corner of the room, illuminating the space decorated by simple furnishings covered in gashes, three hay beds, and baskets of thorns.

A pair of Grass-types—one Cacnea and an older Cacturne that seems to be his father—huddle together on the opposite side of the room, sharing a meal in the dim light. They stare at us for a second before the child scuttles back behind their guardian, who gives him a comforting pat on the back. "You're going to get us out here? The stairway was destroyed."

"We've got a team below. They can catch you at the bottom, but if he's scared we can carry him down," Ri explains, nodding to the boy, "It'll be fine."

The idea of separating even for a brief moment doesn't seem to bode well for either of them, so I pop in, "I'm sure he'll be ok." I give my partner a sly nudge. "After all, the worst part of today's over. He's been as brave as his dad here for this long: I don't see how a little jump's going to scare him now."

I can see it working, if only a little, bolstering the kid as he looks up at Cacturne with fear mixed with resolve. Even he shows some reluctance himself—a lot of Grass-types prefer to keep their feet on the ground from what I've seen—the latter is quick to jump on my words if only to avoid the added trepidation that would come from him leaving his son alone. "He's been handling this like a pro," he replies in a deep, scratchy voice, "You'll be fine, right, boy?"

The hesitation in his eyes is still there, but not as much with the extra encouragement. Rather than answer at first, however, he looks down at the remaining half of the bun clasped in his hands, takes a breath, and shoves it in his mouth as though it could give him the last ounce of strength he needs to get over his fears. Only then, after a few passing seconds, does he gives the three of us a firm nod.

Cacturne steps away to put out the candle and Ri and I move to the side to allow the pair to exit the room and seal the door behind them. "There'll be food and medical help below," Ri tells them as we head over to the window, "A lot of the villagers are meeting up in the village circle too, so if you have any friends or family, you might find them there."

"Two coming down!" I shout at the waiting volunteers.

"I'll go first, so I'll be waiting for you," the Scarecrow Pokemon explains, rising up onto the window sill and peering over the edge. He freezes, but just for a moment. Then, he takes a breath—like father, like son—steels himself, and jumps.

A brief period of silence soon followed after by a chorus of cheers to alert those of us above that he's made it. Cacnea scrambles to the window, needing both mine and Ri's help to get up in order to peer over and see his father lying with his back on the net, bouncing for a moment before he can clumsily shuffle off. The funny display is enough to pull a nervous smile at his mouth, and though he's still radiating with fear, he also almost seems eager to jump once his father's safely to the side.

"It's not so bad!" We hear the latter shout from below, but he gives himself a moment to stretch his back.

"Get ready!" Ri shouts down to the team next, then he turns to me as he braces Cacnea for the leap, "Why don't you go ahead and start checking the other rooms? I'll be with you in a second."

"On it." We've been careful not to rely too much on aura since our skills haven't developed enough for them to work all the time. Aft all, we don't want to leave anyone up here by accident. I take the wall with four unchecked rooms because of my head start, knocking on each door and reciting a similar line to the one Ri gave the Grass-types. I've only checked the first room though, by the time Ri's started checking the other half of the hall.

We haven't done too bad reading the signatures on this floor, because every other room is empty. I'm on the third out of my four—which is another room of one the many Yamask that live in the village based on the pictures lying around from some kind of artist or craftsman probably—when for the first time in our routine that night something catches my eye.

There are the usual patterns that I've seen in almost every home by now: Designs of desert flora or rich geometric patterns, designs that mimic the masks the Yamask love to carry around so much. But then I see other patterns and inscriptions that I can't seem to remember where I know them from. Not at first. A longer, closer look though sends my mind veering back to the murals painted on the walls in the Concealed Ruins, with faces hiding in the shadows, largely faded or eroded by time.

 _Where did he pull these from…?_ I pick up a set of drawings lying on a short table and begin to flip through them. No one should've had access to the ruins expect for Ri and myself, unless anyone was crazy enough to battle the Expedition Team Federation and the legendaries guarding the place, not to mention my team's own wrath—and it's not like that many people knew about them to begin with since it's such a recent discovery. Could there be relics or ruins hidden somewhere closer to the village? I mean, it's possible. We're already started guessing that there are more temples hidden around than just the two Ri and I came across. There's at least one in the mountains further south, closer to the Foggy Forest, based on our travels in the Dark Future.

It's all so strange though…

"Lira?" I turn around to find Ri standing in the doorway behind me, his brows knit together, "It's Diglett. He's waiting for us below: He says it's important."

 _Oh, what now?_ I prepare myself for bad news. Diglett and Dugtrio had volunteered themselves to make the trip back to the Concealed Ruins to see if the earthquake had down any damage to the tunnels or our research. The way there is long enough, so I wasn't expecting them to make it back so soon. Setting the papers where I found them, I follow Ri out and back over to the window. Sure enough, I just barely make out the Mole Pokemon below.

"What is it?" I call down after him, "Is the camp alright? What got closed off?"

"It's not… It's not that…" he heaves, out of breath. He must've raced back here as fast as he could. "It's not the tunnels… Every—everything's fine…! Y-you just…!"

Ri and I share a look, but neither of us say anything. Fine? That can't be right, not except by some miracle. And if everything's fine, then why did he hurry over here?

"You guys… You just!" he continues to pant, "You _really_ need to come see this!"


	4. Pandoran Portraits

Diglett didn't bother to explain what's going on to us: He insists that we have to see the state of the Concealed Ruins for our own eyes. Well, if any major damage was done he'd tell us, so I guess I should relax; however, I only grow more anxious with every step we take closer to our camp. If nothing's wrong, then what did he and Dugtrio find? And if whatever they found was enough to send Diglett after us in a flustered rush, are we even going like whatever we unearthed?

By the time Ri and I finished our tasks and gathered the rest of our team—besides Azalea, who drew in a little too much dust during the earthquake trying to protect civilians—Diglett had already ran off again. Even if there isn't anything wrong with the ruins, we wanted him and Dugtrio to give the area a thorough check: If anything's going to crumble apart, I'd rather it not be on anyone's head. I don't know whether or not they'll be ready for a report by the time we meet up with them again. The walk to the ruins was agonizingly slow and the time it takes for us to gather our gear from our camp just outside of them is just as unbearable.

From the way Ri moves, I can tell he's in no better a state than I am. He's quiet, moving through our tent like he's in a daze, and he fumbles with our supplies—scrambling a bit to gather a long cord of rope and stuff it in his bag. He's always so open with his emotions, but he's also better than me at hiding them when he wants to. And he's always looking after me to see if I'm ok. After everything that happened with Darkrai, I feel like I need to keep an eye on him more. To make sure he's alright mentally. I know better than anyone how hard it can be to suffer in silence: I never want to put him through that again.

I gently grip him by the shoulder, beckoning him to look at me, and smile, "Nervous much?"

He takes a breath, smirking in return, "Kind of, but I'm mostly excited—if you can believe it. If Diglett and Dugtrio said everything's ok, then I trust them. But, whatever it is we find down there…" He shakes his head, reorganizing his thoughts for a moment before continuing, "It's more than just whatever it is we'll discover this time, Lira. I mean, we've already gotten to see so much together, but it just feels different this time, you know?"

"If by 'different,' you mean that there's no primordial power looming over our heads this time?" I shrug, "Then yeah. Yeah, it's a lot different…"

It's different because _we're_ different. It's different because we've gotten a little older and a lot more restless: Everything harder and we still don't know what we're expecting except the worst at times. All the while, being heroes left on standby is even more taxing than being ones drawn out of the blue. We're explorers: This is supposed to be something thrilling and overwhelming for us, but with everything else that's going on, it's so easy to just feel… lost. Like there's something more we could be doing right now.

And, just as it's entered my thoughts a thousand times before, there's also—

"Are you feeling any better, Lira?" Ri asks me, "About being on our own as a team? I mean, I thought I'd be happier to come this far, you know? When we graduated I thought there'd be no limit to what we could do…" He shuffles in place, "I guess I just didn't think about what all that meant. We saved the world, you found out who you were, I found out about my Relic Fragment: We've already done everything we set out to do, and now we've got to find Darkrai, find your parents, figure out how to correct these disturbances in time-place, and learn about these ruins—It's…" He takes another, deep breath, offering me a timid grin, "It's all weighing down on us, huh?"

"Well, know that I'm right here beside you," I smile back, stashing a few more things away before pulling myself closer to his side. I wrap my fingers around his own and nuzzle by him comfortingly. I really do mean it to try to soothe him, but I end up feeling some of my own stress elevated too at the action. "One thing at a time, right? Let's see what we've got waiting for us now."

As thought on cue, the flap to our tent is pulled back: Grovyle and Celebi stand by the entrance, already geared up. "Whatever we find," the Grass-type grumbles, "I think I'll be happy just to get to sleep tonight after running around so much. Are you two ready to go?"

"Ready as ever," I grunt, tugging on the strap of my bag as I heft it over my shoulders, "Where's Dusknoir?"

"You can ask him that yourself," Grovyle smirks, "Stuck in his own tent, as usual. He doesn't seem keen on coming out anytime soon."

I share a look with my partner. Dusknoir's gotten a lot better about being more of a team-player and—largely—the distrust toward him has faded, especially after the events on Blizzard Island and the Dark Crater. Still, he's more content by himself than with others, either because he hasn't gotten over his own past himself or because all of that charisma he had as 'The Great Explorer Dusknoir' really was just an act. It's probably both…

Ri's the first to move, calling out the short distance to the Gripper Pokemon's tent as soon as he's stepped outside, "Dusknoir, this could be a big discovery! You can't just stay put while the rest of us go!"

It's not all the surprising to hear him give an irritated shout back, "Need I remind you that you were the ones to give me the job as your translator?!" He doesn't even bother to look outside of his own tent, so we have the 'grace' of only hearing his muffled complaints through the closed flap. "Either I accept your constant interruptions to whatever new pile of dust you manage to find or I focus my energy on actually sorting out this mess of texts!"

"You're the one who wanted the job!" I can't resist reminding him. I know I'm not helping—I don't need the look Ri gives me at my shout to know that—but I can't help it. Whatever's changed now that he's on our side, the fact that Ri still looks up to him for some odd reason and that I still love getting on his nerves doesn't seem to alter. Unable to resist, I walk over to the Ghost-type's tent myself and open the flap, peering inside at the darkness within. "How do you even see in here?"

I won't question how since none of us should have brought enough personal belongs to make a mess, but he's managed to make one anyway. With just the flickering of a small candle for him to see by, I notice stacks of papers littering the space, crates brought in as makeshift tables, and odd relics here or there. Even the leftovers from a meal sit one side of the tent. How someone can act so refined and be such a slob remains beyond me…

Dusknoir groans, straightening himself up from his work as he levels his one eye straight at me in an unamused glare. By now, Ri's joined my side and I spot the papers I found earlier that day stretched out in front of the former, a pen in his hand with a set of notes to his right. For all his talk on being patient and careful with the translations, it looks like he's made a lot of progress. I know he couldn't have had that long to work on them since we all went to town not long after discovering them and haven't spent much time back at camp either. There's a good chance he could've even brought them to the village with him and has been working nonstop.

It's kind of funny. There are times when he acts like he's beyond what we do—like, for the most part, he's just tagging along since he didn't have much of anywhere else to go before. Still, at other times, Dusknoir can seem just as invested in our work as explorers as any of us. Maybe it's because of his experience under Primal Dialga. As Dialga's second-in-command, he had access to every kind of knowledge and he was expected to perform well because of it. For everything the Resistance researched, for every move we made, he had to know how to counter it. Even when we went back to the past, while Grovyle and I went in not knowing what to expect, Dusknoir came here fully prepared to disguise himself as someone who fit right into this world. I guess research is just where he fits best, and possibly even more so now that he's not set in a high place of status anymore.

"Do you want this done?" he asks in a flat, condescending tone. He waves his free hand down at the papers, "You gave these to me to translate: I'm translating them. I trust whatever else you may find can be left to the four of you, so leave this to me. We'll make more progress this way."

It's sound logic, but it isn't exactly what Ri and I want to hear. Sure, we're all figuring out our different roles on the team, but there's a lot of things we'd still like to do _as_ a team. It just doesn't feel right if we can't experience some things together. "But then you'll miss out," Ri insists, echoing my own thoughts, "Come on, Dusknoir: Can't you just stop for a little while to head into the ruins with us?"

"If I can finish these translations, who knows: I might just make a discovery of my own," he replies, looking back down at his work. For an odd change, his voice turns reassuring as he continues, "I'll be fine. Both of you, just go on ahead with Grovyle and Celebi. We can report on our findings when you return."

He's not going to budge. Once he's stopped bothering to even at you, that's usually his way of ending the conversation. Shoulders sinking in defeat, Ri nudges me in the arm and the two of us follow Celebi and Grovyle off into the ruins.

The gaping mouth that leads us in is stained with streaks of a dull red, most likely the remnants of ochre paint that would've given the walls a rich, earthy sheen. On other side, Golurk are etched into the stone—acting as sleepless, eternal guardians of the place. Inside though, faded as they are, we're greeted by a passage of archaic murals depicting a lush, desert-forest landscape with trees ripe for the harvest eventually transitioning into flat illustrations of tables lined with the spoils of one. From the relatively desolate state of the surrounding area, it's hard to imagine the land thriving in the way shown in the murals. Still, I guess it was just another time: There's no telling how much the land has changed.

"Nothing looks any different," Celebi comments with a note of impatience as she levels herself to mine and Ri's height mid-glide, "What do you think we got called back to see?"

"Dugtrio should be further up ahead," Ri answers. The two of us summon our aura and Grovyle creates and Energy Ball to light the way. Normally, we'd have torches and lanterns burning throughout the passages—especially whenever we're working at this hour—but since Dugtrio's and Diglett's species are used to tunneling through the dark, they must not have thought to light any.

 _No damages so far…_ If we hadn't endured the earthquake firsthand, I probably wouldn't believe that there had been one at all, based on the looks of things. It's just like Diglett said: Everything's still ok. Then again, when Ri and I first discovered this place with Team Charm we did see it appear from the earth and out of nowhere, as if the mountains themselves had carved away from the ruins, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised. Whoever built this place clearly must've built it to last.

We pass elongated statues of three of the Regis next as the first passage opens into a small chamber that then splits off into four separate paths, taking the widest directly across the closed space. Their basic, geometric forms line the tunnel in a pattern, the same in which we initially fought them those months ago in Aegis Cave: Regice, Regirock, and Registeel. This tunnel seems to stretch across the bulk of the ruins with various paths splitting off from it—carving through a quad, a massive audience chamber, a small arena, and what seems to be a kind of throne room—so everyone's taken to calling it Main St. Still for its importance and the clear connection to Aegis Cave, there's no sign of anything relating to Regigigas.

It was our battle with Regigigas that finally led to us discovering these ruins. He was our last and fiercest opponent: The final protector of those caves. It's weird that we haven't spotted anything relating to him here just yet. I mean, we still have an entire underground network of tunnels to investigate, but I'm surprised he isn't at the forefront of all of these images. I would've expected to find a massive statue of him towering over us—not that I'm complaining about a lack of one either. It just doesn't sit right with me is all.

"Do you hear that?" Grovyle asks. We pause, and then, ever faintly, we here Dugtrio's voice echoing off the walls further in. We can't see him yet or tell what he's saying, but he probably sees us by now. Main St. doesn't curve off anywhere, so he'd notice our lights well before we'd spot him.

We all feel it: A sudden weight tightening in our chests. Unable to control ourselves, Ri and I run on ahead, my partner taking my free hand with his own. For all of our nerves, we have to see what all the fuss has been about.

Clearly, Dugtrio can't wait any longer either. As we see his silhouette come into view, he shouts, "You won't believe what we found! That chamber you were exploring? The passage to it collapsed the rest of the way: Whatever was blocking those doors got loose." Even though he's stayed in place, the way he speaks makes it seem as though he's out of breath. "Diglett and I were double-checking everything—we didn't touch anything—but we did enter that tunnel and it's—it's something alright! The murals, there's nothing like them anywhere else in these ruins that we've seen!"

My heart nearly stops at the mention of the tunnel collapsing and I have to look over the area to reassure myself even as Ri tries to get Dugtrio to slow down and Grovyle and Celebi catch up to us, prompting the Ground-type to explain things all over again as best he can. No matter what though, it's like he can't: Whenever he tries to describe whatever he and Diglett saw, he falters. One minute, he's talking about bipedal forms shown in the wall paintings, the next he's talking about how it seems like the figures move in them with a Gothitelle's fluidity and grace. It almost sounds like he's talking about some ancient, long extinct Pokemon than anything else. He doesn't know what he saw.

So we don't have a choice. The hole in the floor that Azalea and I were lowered into is wider now. Celebi can fly down, but she waits for Grovyle, Ri, and me as we tie our ropes around our wastes and prepare for the climb down. Dugtrio and Grovyle first act as spotters for Ri and me, making sure we're secure and helping lower us as we move. Ri braces me with one hand and I use one to maintain my Aura Sphere: We work in unison, swinging our weight to reach the nearest wall, scaling down the low-relief work protruding from it, and finding footholds on stone heads and shoulders. To think the figures seemed so foreboding earlier and now we're literally walking over history! Maybe it's for the best that Dusknoir didn't tag along: If he did, or if Chatot were here, either of them would never let us hear the end it.

We're scrambling to hurry. I know we have to be moving faster than the careful descent Azalea and I took earlier that day, but it manages to feel like it's taking an eternity longer. Only the shadows of Grovyle and Celebi following down after us give us any sign of progress in the blackened depths. And I look down. As the light of my Aura Sphere stretches out and finally reaches the chamber below, I see it: The newly opened way that I had dismissed in favor of exploring the room itself. Now it calls to me and I feel the insatiable thirst for discovery that's always so rattling to my and my partner's core.

I wish I could say we were patient, but we're not. When our feet touch the ground, Ri and I tear at the cords around us to break free and continue on ahead. Ri beats me, snickering in a teasing way as he jogs toward the ruined doors first. My heart hammering in my chest, I soon chase after him with Grovyle and Celebi finally reaching ground as we dart beyond into the passage. For a second, I'm caught off-guard by how the light shifts around me, the narrower walls closing it in and focusing it even more intensely on the overwhelming height of the passage. There's rubble and splintered wood everywhere, and when I look up I find that part of the ceiling had broken free. My only guess is that whatever fell from above dislodged whatever was blocking our way.

Ri's a little further ahead of me, frozen still and gaping at the figures on the wall. It's a miracle that they've stayed in one piece, because from the looks of it these tunnels suffered more damage in the earthquake than the ones above. With a few quick steps, I'm soon standing by his side, raising my Aura Sphere higher to get a better look at the new find.

But the nervous excitement I felt fades as quickly as it comes in place of a startling numbness by what I see.

Dugtrio wasn't too off the mark in his rambling attempts to describe the mural. The figures are bipedal. They're a lot smaller than the depictions of the Golurk that we're seen, but bigger than us—probably closer to a Zoroark's height. Their bodies are also fluid, draped in a way that make them seem built more like a Gothitelle then, say, a Lucario or a Gallade. It's no wonder he couldn't tell what kind of Pokemon they were: Pokemon don't typically wear that kind of stuff, or anything for that matter.

But then, I wouldn't expect Dugtrio to know what kind of Pokemon they were to begin with, because they're not Pokemon at all. Instead, when I look at the murals I find the simplistically etched faces of my own kind staring back. Human beings.


	5. Faces in the Dust

Really, I can't find it in myself to be all that surprised—I grew up here in the Grass Continent in the Dark Future, after all. But that was different, because in that future all of the barriers established by legendaries in order to protect the isolated regions were broken down. Humans were allowed to slip through as a result. I'm not even surprised to find solid evidence that humans _did_ live here a long time ago. I mean, one of the things I overheard in my visions of Darkrai's past was that, at some point, humans and Pokemon were divided into the territories that exist today. It's why some Pokemon in the isolated regions believe humans are just a myth while others know that's anything but true.

To see it though, to _really_ see a fragment of them here of all places, rattles me. Maybe it's because, somewhere deep down, I'm still a human being too. I mean, I _am_ a Pokemon now and my strongest memories are tied to how I was raised alongside Pokemon, but somewhere deeper still there's an aching familiarity to the figures in the mural. If these ruins are anything to go by, we didn't just live here: We _thrived_ here, and not in any small community either. Pokemon have, in no way, caught up to the kind of technology humans have, so for them to have built the other temples and structures like this—that dot the continent, especially here in the east—is incredibly unlikely. It may have been at a point beyond recorded history, but humans had a foothold here. And I don't know what to make of it.

I've taken a seat on one of the smaller rocks. A pair of hands comes to rest on my shoulders, bracing me from behind. Grovyle. It's possible that only he and Dusknoir might understand a little bit of how I feel. Celebi could go anywhere in the world, but she chose to stay with us. If she hadn't, I don't know if she would've interacted with humans much at all. Ri said that his dad used to have a trainer, but beyond that he only really knows what humans are like through me—not like I'm the best example of one as it is. I don't think anyone else from the Guild would even know what a human looks like. That leaves just Grovyle, Dusknoir, and me: We might be the only ones who understand human culture enough to at least know how polar it can be from the way we live here. This is an exciting discovery for the Pokemon world—I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thrilled to find something like this too—but I can't help also feeling a personal uncertainty toward it. This could be my history, but it's not. They could be my ancestors, but they're not. I chose to abandon that when I chose to stay in this time as a Riolu. So I don't really know what any of this means to me.

At least Ri's happy. Beyond it, actually. He's just as stunned as any of us, but unlike me he steps closer to the mural and runs his hand along its incisions with captive fascination, investigating every detail. He takes in the flat, slim forms adorned in flowing robes that stretch to the ground, making it seem as though they're floating rather than standing. They're life-size—possibly even bigger—so even the ones that crouch or kneel are taller than we are. A few of them carry things such as staffs or chests of treasures, but the ones that don't hold their palms facing outward. Ri overlaps his hand with one of theirs, dwarfing it, and grins. His eyes seem to sparkle with wonder, and when his gaze turns back to me I find all the rapture of an inquisitive mind reflected in it.

"Humans were here, Lira!" he gives voice to our combined revelation, "Even though the Dark Future never came, humans still used to live here! They built this place!"

Yeah, they were here. Why though? What were we doing here? More importantly, why were we cast out…?

Wielding his staff of aura a little higher, he follows the path that the figures lead in—all facing the same way, bearing their loads, many of them posed in a position of reverence with their eyes sealed shut. The ones that aren't seem to be guiding the others. As my partner moves further away, I begin to follow with Grovyle behind me. Celebi, meanwhile, stays back to update Dugtrio on the find.

The trail of figures doesn't go on for too long, but it's far enough away from the chamber behind us that we've reached another fork in the series of tunnels, the new paths all leading into the depths of who-knows-where and in the very same state of paralyzed destruction as the one we entered through. They wrap around the walls and continue on down separate trails.

Looking back the way we came, Grovyle narrows his gaze with a hum of thought, "It looks like whoever lived in that chamber you found might've been more important than we thought—maybe not as a type of leader, but as a type of servant."

He has a point. If the chamber belong to a ruler or other high-figure in this ancient society, then the mural would have the figures directed _toward_ the chamber rather than from it: People would be shown devoting their service to him by the depiction of carrying treasures to his room, not be sent out from it. A kind of civil servant then? Whoever stayed there would've still had to have some status and wealth for the chamber to be as decorated as it was.

"Should we see where these keep leading to?" Ri asks, craning his neck around the corner of the hall and unable to hide the restlessness in his voice.

"Not tonight," Grovyle shakes his head, "We're all exhausted already and I don't trust the looks of things down here. These ruins have been able to hold themselves up for this long, but let's not gamble on anyone's safety now. We should wait until everyone else makes it back to camp and focus on recovering the damages."

It's not what my partner wants to hear, but neither of us can argue with him. I'm as curious as he is, but I'm sore from being on my feet nonstop and can't wait to get some sleep. It's got to be well past midnight by now. Even if we felt like we could keep going, even if we could guarantee everyone's safety, it's also not right for us to try to push the others. They're probably going to stay in the village for a while to continue to help where they can there: They'd be too tired to come all the way back to camp and jumpstart a full investigation and there's not enough of us here to get one going right now.

With a wave of his arm, Grovyle leads us back the way we came. Now fully alert to the situation, Dugtrio stares at the mural in a daze as we regroup with him and Celebi. It's only for a second, but I feel it: His eyes briefly shifting my way before falling back to the wall. I don't blame him, and it's got to be stranger for him than it is for me. It does make me wonder though how the other apprentices are going to react to this.

"Find anything?" Celebi asks, gliding over to my brother figure.

"Another series of tunnels, so we've got our work cut out for us in the near future."

Celebi's young, but she's still a mythical Pokemon. There are plenty of legendaries like Cresselia and Dialga who don't think twice about keeping information from us, but I don't think she would. She's closer to us than she would be to any of them and has no reason to hide anything. It's a long shot, but I have to ask her, "You don't know anything about when humans used to live in these regions, do you Celebi? Could you tell us anything?"

As predicted though, she frowns, "I wish I did, but I was just another one Primal Dialga's prisoners in the Dark Future before I could escape and join the Resistance. And I'm afraid I had more to do with protecting the present than observing the past before we met in this timeline, so there isn't much I could tell you that you wouldn't already know: Humans and Pokemon used to live together here like they do beyond the continents until one day the legendaries decided to separate them—not entirely, but enough to close off entire land masses like the Grass Continent and the others nearby."

"But why?" Dugtrio questions, his brow furrowing, "Even if there's some bad ones out there, it isn't any different than the way things are between Pokemon now. And I thought humans didn't have abilities like Pokemon." He looks to me before continuing, "Our Lira here can use aura and has that Scream of hers, sure, but I take it she's the exception instead of the rule."

But Celebi just doesn't have all the answers. I speak up a second time, "I don't think you understand how different things are for humans. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say it's a whole other world out there." I fold my arms across my chest before continuing, "I don't know why humans would've been separated either, but honestly, I don't know whether or not it's such a bad thing."

Ri gives me a look of bewilderment, stepping in front of me with a stern expression, "You're kidding, right? Half of the world thinks humans are just things from legend and you'd rather it be that way?"

"It's not like that," I retort, feeling something cringe inside me in defense, "The human-run territories aren't bad, but they are… different. You haven't been to them yet, Ri, but in the future, you were pretty wary around humans. Sure, I'm partially to thank for that, but I think the continents are fine the way they are now: I don't think anyone would be happy if the same, massive cities over there popped over here too."

It's not that I don't think humans and Pokemon should live together: Humans and Pokemon live together just fine, but _over there_. And there's a noticeable gap in this world and that one for Pokemon. Pokemon have their own civilizations here, but over there, humans dominate and Pokemon don't seem to progress in the same way. And I like that there's so much left untouched here in the continents. If humans moved in, I don't know if things would stay that way. Maybe things could be better, but for all we know humans and Pokemon might end up at each other's throats like they were in the Dark Future. Maybe I don't know enough about my own kind to make those kinds of judgments, but it's just what I think right for now.

However, I don't think Ri can believe what he's hearing, " _You_ were human. I know you didn't stay one, but I also know there's a part of you that can't let go of that. What would be so bad if humans were here?"

Fortunately, Grovyle steps in before the conversation can spiral any further, "It's not a matter of good or bad, but humans do have another way of life, Ri—one that might not necessarily fit to how Pokemon here live, that's what Lira means. Either way though, there's no sense in arguing over dust: The past is past and we've got work first thing in the morning. So let's just return to the camp and get some rest."

* * *

Tired as we are, rest is the last thing on anyone's mind when we get back to the surface. We've already burned away our energy from our last meal, we're halfway running on all of the anxieties and excitement from today, and the new wave of questions that's rolled over us over keep piling up. So, for about an hour, we all just regrouped and tried to relax by the fire-pit in the center of camp. By then, Dusknoir had translated enough from the papers to even read off a few, coherent bits of information. It doesn't seem quite like anything we were hoping for so far—just a survey or some other type of dull paperwork—but I guess we're all so desperate to know anything at all that none of us mind.

The Ghost-type's still hard at work. From the crevice beneath the fabric of mine and Ri's tent, I can still faintly see the light shining from his own. Meanwhile, I lie sideways on my side of our bed, just staring at the yellow glow seeping in.

Humans. Of all creatures, why did we have to find evidence of humans? It shouldn't bother me as much as it does, but if I needed a distraction from everything that's going on in the world and from Darkrai, this is one of the last things I would've wanted on my mind instead. It's just all so complicated, and I don't know how to talk to much of anyone about it because there's not a person here who's gone through what I'm having to though. Sure there have been records of humans transforming into Pokemon before me, but it's not like I've been able to meet any of them. And I can't imagine many of them choosing to _stay_ Pokemon either…

I didn't just choose this life because of Ri. In a sense, I had an advantage that others probably wouldn't have: I was raised by Grovyle. I grew up understanding how to live like a Pokemon more than I did over how to live like a normal human being. I was taught to think the way Pokemon think. I grew to love living the way Pokemon lived. Because of that, my nature was practically set in stone. I don't know if other humans would make the same choices I made. And besides my transformation, I'm not sure if I even know how human or Pokemon I am compared to other people.

I've started to doze off when an arm loops around my waist, drawing me closer to the person lying next to me. I feel my partner's breath tickly my aura sensors as he shuffles over to me. The desert can get pretty cold at night: It isn't getting any better now that fall and winter are rapidly closing in. He's so warm though and I feel myself relax in his hold.

A quiet murmur brushes my ear. "I'm sorry if I said anything hurtful. I really never meant anything by it: I… I guess I got a little too excited is all."

Ri's still got that on his mind… I take a deep breath, burying my face into the hay. "Don't worry: You didn't hurt me," I sigh, "I've just got a lot to sort out on my own about this. As always…"

He chuffs good-naturedly, "I thought we weren't going to try to sort things out on our own as much anymore."

"It must be unavoidable. We get so much on our minds that we forget we can actually talk to other people instead."

The light outside goes off, so Dusknoir must've finally decided to turn in for the night. Everyone else already went to bed well before us too. The blanket tugged away a bit when Ri moved and I pull it back over us, my partner helping resettle it over us both as I give him a fistful of fabric and then tuck myself into my half of it so that the faint breeze seeping through the tent doesn't bother me during the night. We should probably tighten the cords around the stakes tomorrow, see if we can't completely seal off the wind.

A second of silence continues, then Ri whispers to me once again. "Don't you ever miss being with other humans, Lira? I thought you'd be more excited than anyone about this. They're your people."

"No, they're not, Ri," I roll over to face him, "Not really. Definitely not anymore." My place is here and I wouldn't be here if I hadn't decided to retake the form of a Riolu. That's that. "Don't get me wrong, I miss some of them, like my parents and like Max, but beyond that I don't really know how to feel about other humans. I just don't have the ties to them like you do to your hometown."

Before he can protest, I brush my nose alongside his in a soft caress, then slip my head under his chin. He pulls me closer to him against the cold. We both smell like dust—I'm looking forward to a wash in the stream first thing in the morning—but beneath that is the warm, earthy scent I've come to associate my partner with as I curl up against him.

" _This_ is my home," I hush, "And it is hard sometimes—I'll admit that much if you want me to—but I don't want to be anywhere else, humans or no humans. And I don't want to lose my home trying to chase after them either."

 _Besides, it's not like they ever chased after me…_ The terrible thought plants itself into my head without my control. I don't voice it though. I don't want to think it, so I brush it aside.

Ri's embrace tightens, but he doesn't say anything further. What is there left to say that we haven't already the many, countless times we've had this kind of discussion? "Goodnight, Ri," I whisper before he can find anything more to add. Not tonight. Any night's not really going to be a good night to talk about these sorts of things, but please not now.

Tilting himself back, he gives me a small, timid kiss on my forehead before settling down again. After that, we somehow manage to get to sleep.


	6. Deep Breaths

There's a lot of anxiety on top of us from heading the expedition at the Concealed Ruins, but probably my least favorite part is still the paperwork…

Maybe I shouldn't complain. Beyond balancing our earnings from assignments and when we first signed on with the Guild as an exploration team, we haven't had to do much at all. And lately, Dusknoir and Grovyle have split that chore with us too. It just doesn't stop me from hating what little paperwork we _are_ given, which, for this operation, has been more than enough.

Leaning forward across the makeshift table of crates with my throbbing head resting against its flat surface, I release a long, agitated sigh. As I sit in the heart of camp over a stack of forms with the mid-morning sun heating my back, I can hear the chatter of our Guildmates rushing here and there in a bustle of excitement over our discovery below the earth. Most of them found out about it yesterday morning when they returned from the village: No one is over it yet. And even if I could share in their excitement, Chatot's got it in his head that Ri and I need to 'act like professionals' by sorting through the papers sent by the Exploration Team Federation ourselves.

We already had to fill out a report when we first discovered the Concealed Ruins, but it turns out there's a lot more to it that. Updates on the expedition, detailed reports on scriptures and artifacts, registering treasures, so much paperwork that I feel like I could tear my hair out! One of the things I love about this world is how much simpler it is compared to the fast-paced, ridged structure of human society. Not even the complicated hierarchy of factions in the Resistance was this bad: Since when do Pokemon need all of this paperwork—I bet they don't even look at half of it! Given that all he really did was sign our team name on a list, I know that the Guildmaster sure doesn't!

A part of me wonders if this is just some form of torture since Chatot can't boss us around like he could when we were apprentices. Or maybe this is the workload he gets stuck with since Wigglytuff has an… irresponsible streak, to say the least, and so he wants someone else to suffer with him.

The faint clink of a clay cup on wood beckons my gaze up to my partner's. With a set of envelopes under his arm and another glass of water that he sets in front of him, he gives me an amused grin. I glare back, "If there's even a single form for me to sign in those letters, I'm going to scream."

"I think you're safe," he snorts, taking a seat across from me. I've already got a few papers for him to doublecheck and sign himself: Dropping the mail to the opposite side, he drags them closer to give them a glance. "It's mostly just news from Treasure Town. I got a letter from home." He nudges the top of the stack over to me and takes a drink before continuing, "Oh, and there's a letter from Walrein too."

My mood immediately lifts. I freeze for just a second, but an instant later I'm hefting my body over the table and snatching the letter from the pile. There's his name in strong, black ink… For all the heartache that came with sending Manaphy to live with Walrein, he's actually been a really amazing guy about it, letting us know how Manaphy is doing and how he's growing up so we're not completely cut off from his life. It's rare to hear from him—hard to get mail in the middle of the ocean, so we're lucky if we hear anything within a month—but he can get our letters and send out his own whenever he goes to the mainland. I tear open the envelope, fold open the letter, and begin to read:

 _Dear Team Crusade,_

 _It's good to learn that you continue to find success in your work. Your adventures have become something of a topic of chatter beneath the waters. There isn't much action in a quiet place like this, so some of the neighbors are always eager for one story or another. I'm afraid there isn't much to write back about there._

 _You asked before about if there was any kind of education set up in the Serene Sea: I said that there wasn't really a school, so I've been teaching Manaphy a bit myself. While I still think he's too young to go anywhere too far from the homestead or for any heavy learning, he picks up on things quick and is always trying to see something new—sometimes to my worry, if I'm honest. He must've picked up a thing or two from growing up with you and at the Guild, because he's sure got the curiosity of an explorer. There's a Barbaracle that does teach a bit to the kids, so I'll see about talking to him to help Manaphy with his studies next year. He should be grown enough by then for some actual schooling._

 _The weather's getting cooler. I know your species can't handle the lower temperatures like mine, so keep yourselves cozy. Still, there's a lot you'll miss out on. The kids really enjoy sliding on the ice when winter comes around._

 _I should be writing to you again closer to the holidays and I hope we can hear from you all soon._

— _Walrein_

I read the letter a second time for Ri and he just beams with pride. Of course there's no genetic relation, but knowing that the little guy's taken something from us means a lot. We couldn't be the family we wanted to be for him, but we still love him all the same. I recognize Manaphy's smaller handprint next to Walrein's own beneath the signature. It's still just as small as I remember it when he was with us, dwarfing mine.

"I figured you wouldn't mind that kind of paperwork," Ri grins, reaching across the table and taking my hand in his own. As our fingers lace together, he gives them a tender squeeze.

I set the letter aside, leaning forward as I return the small affection. "Yeah, this kind of thing isn't so bad."

It's a relief, having something like that to hear to keep me stable in the unsteady mess made up of everything else. From what Sunflora and Chimecho told me, a bunch of people were injured during the earthquake. Even Croagunk and Corphish stayed behind to check around the area and make sure no one's lost and hurt out in the nearby desert forests. If disasters like these are still happening all over the world, I wouldn't want to think of Manaphy being so far away from us without anyone protecting him.

Ri's the first to get back to work, taking up a quill and pulling one of the forms toward him from the stack. With a smile, I take a drink of water before looking down at the report in front of me. Since I used to be a human, Chatot and Wigglytuff both thought it would be for the best if I also wrote something in addition to the usual personal account about our findings, but what am I supposed to say? Yes, it was incredibly weird to say the least knowing full-well that my species some thousand years ago got on the bad side of a few legendaries and were kicked out of the continents as a result? What do they expect from me?

So far, all I have are a few notes and a conte doodle. I've already sketched out the mural and a few other relics in my journal, but it seems all I can do is draw it again. If it weren't for that, all I'd have is a blank page in front of me.

"Maybe we should reconsider making any new discoveries in the future," I grumble down at the paper, "It might not be worth this."

He snickers back, "Think of it this way: If we ever form a Guild of our own someday, at least we'll be prepared."

That surprises me and for a moment, I just stare. Ever since we graduated, Ri and I haven't really talked about any sort of plans for ourselves. We've been trying to establish our team base at Sharpedo Bluff, but Dusknoir, Ri, and I all still stay in our own rooms at the Guild for now. Ri's promised me that we wouldn't take any major leaps unless I felt comfortable with them since things have been moving so fast. Sure, we need to talk about what are plans are: It's just strange to hear that kind of suggestion all of sudden.

In order to form a Guild, our team would have to reach one of the highest ranks possible within the Federation. I don't think it's impossible, but it is a massive goal. First off, there's a kind of point system that the Federation uses when giving teams ranks. For everyday purposes, they help explorers sort out which jobs should fit their level of experience and which criminals might be more dangerous for newer, younger explorers to go after. You gain 'points' over time based on how many jobs your team has successfully completed, and some jobs are worth more than others. It's simple: Get enough 'points' and your rank goes up. Needless to say though, getting enough of them for the Federation to give you the Guildmaster Rank can take a long while. Years, actually. From what I hear, Wigglytuff and Chatot are two of the youngest explorers to make it and they're in their middle ages. And as famous as it is, it's still one of the smaller Guilds too.

There's more to it though. Having friends in the Federation or knowing the right connections can speed up the process. Taking apprentices early on shows that you already have some teaching experience in order to train future explorers. You need to know where a Guild would be established and what your competition would be. There are also ways your team can be set back if it develops a bad reputation. I don't think anyone in our Guild would be all that thrilled with us for dreaming up that sort of scheme this early on either. And I doubt Ri wants to leave them any more than I do. Out of all the big jumps we could make, that's a plunge beyond anything else we could dream up right now.

Noticing my hesitation, Ri's quick to return my gaze with a somewhat embarrassed stare of his own. "I don't mean that I want to start a Guild: I'm just saying if we ever wanted to one day, it could happen." He pauses before adding, "Do you want a start a Guild…?"

"I thought we were still going to try to explore as much as we could on our own," I answer cautiously, "I don't think it would feel right if we formed a Guild since, for the most part, we'd be stuck in the same place trying to run it." Wigglytuff and Chatot sometimes go on jobs or expeditions, like coming here to help us, but overall, they stay in Treasure Town: They can't be gone from the compound for lengthy periods at a time. I don't think we'd be happy if we rooted down anywhere just yet. I'm not even sure if we'd be happy with it at all.

"Right," he nods, biting his lower lip in thought, "so, what do you want to do then?"

Ugh, out of all the questions he could ask… With a deep exhale, I balance my head in one hand against the table. I want everything involving Darkrai to be behind us. I want to finish the work here at the Concealed Ruins so we can start our next adventure. I want to move on, but this new find insists that I look back. I want to stop worrying about the past or the future so I can just live in present: I want for us to live our lives for a while.

…That's it, isn't it? Come to think of it, I guess I never really came up with any dreams for myself. Even when I made it back to the past, all I could think of was how I'd continue to grow as an explorer with Ri. I didn't know what we'd do. Not knowing has just always been a part of the wonder of it all, but with everything else tearing me in every direction, I just feel lost. I don't have a goal like I did before.

"How about this." Folding his arms on top on the table, Ri levels his eyes at mine, "Pick something small that you want to do. Don't think about anything else: Just say something you want to do right now, something… something we can do before the year's over. What do you want to do?"

Before the year's over… That's about three months. I don't know how long it'll take for us to finish up here, but winter's coming soon. Will we get snow in Treasure Town like we did last year? We shouldn't, but I think I'd like to see it again. More than that though, I'm antsy: Staying here, unable to do anything, is driving me crazy. I need to be on the move again. I need a different terrain to pave a trail through, something to take my mind off things. "I want to go somewhere new," I muse aloud, "Once we're done here, let's go back to Treasure Town for a bit, but then go somewhere completely new."

"Somewhere new," he echoes, reaching for my hand again, "Ok. I think we can manage that."

Slowly, my smile returns. The past two days have been nothing but stressful and awkward. More than usual. I'm looking forward to anything that could change that, anything to set something in motion so that we're not at this rocky stalemate.

A few minutes later, casting a quick look around to make sure we're not spotted, Ri flashes me a look of mischief and grabs our Treasure Bag. He pulls all of the papers together in a neat pile, pinning them down with our cups, and then pulls me out of my seat before I can even express my bewilderment. "What are you doing?" I ask, raising a brow as he starts to tug me toward the ruins.

"Trying to give us a head start for our next adventure," he answers, "before anyone else can beat us to it this time. The papers can wait."


	7. Under the Surface

I can't help feeling somewhat giddy as Ri and I head deeper and deeper into the depths of the Concealed Ruins. One of the first things Diglett and Dugtrio set out to do was carve an easier way down than the harsh climb through the bedchamber: They managed to find a destroyed stairwell from the below, so they tore through the boulders and bricks that had sealed it to create a new tunnel. A few wooden beams have been set up to help stabilize the entrance until the repairs can be finished. Here, we're easily able to slip down to the next floor without raising any suspicion.

This reminds me of when we used to sneak around the Guild at night after curfew. It was usually me dragging Ri around then though, stirring up a bit of mischief or swiping a midnight snack. It's not as fun now that we've graduated and don't have the curfew looming over us, but this feels just the same as it used to: We're still sneaking around, trying to avoid Chatot or anyone else that would tip him off. Well, he can't force us to do chores anymore, so who knows what it would mean besides a lecture even if we did get caught.

Since we've focused so much on just having a safe way down, no one's gotten very far into the tunnels themselves. A few torches light the small area around us, but it's pretty much pitch black beyond it. I wouldn't want for us to use our aura just yet because it would be an obvious sign to anyone that we're down here, so we'll have to find our way by feel until we can get farther in.

Ri's soft whisper is still unable to hold back his eager tone, "So, what do you think we'll find, Lira?"

"I have no idea." I can now remember most of my life as a human—in both timelines—and I could explain a lot more about the human world than what I had to relearn when the future was saved, but this is entirely different. The Pokemon who live here didn't even know about all of this: I can't think of a single human being that could begin to wrap their minds around it either. Just as humans are a myth to a lot of the Pokemon in these regions, these regions are largely unknown to humanity. Whoever the humans were that once lived here, they could've had an entirely different culture than anything we've seen. "An entirely different society lost to thousands of years? Who knows if they were even close to the way humans are now."

"Well, you know what this reminds me of?" he offers, smiling in the dark, "The ruins in the Northern Desert, and the temple in the Hidden Land too. It makes me wonder if humans might've been involved in building all of them."

He's got a point. The hieroglyphs in the dessert were different, but the way the halls are structured is somewhat familiar to the winding passages there. And both the temple in the Hidden Land and the ruins here are preserved so well from the wear of time that the similarities between the two are obvious. The way the murals are designed, for one, but also the stonework. The columns that support the tunnels have a clean, rounded geometry to them: A simple base with a shaft that narrows the upward before meeting with a second ring around the shaft, following shortly by a third detailed with spherical protrusions—the best preserved remind me almost of flower buds. Scaling the rest of the column, the shaft is just as plain as the base, but the capital at the top mimics the floral patterns of the third ring and decorates them further with weaving curls. If it weren't for the humans painted on the walls in the place of legendaries and the encasing darkness, I would've felt like we were back in the Hidden Land again.

Could humans really have been a part of that temple's construction too? I don't know, maybe just a small, select group of them. I think the territories outside of our world that the legendaries are bound to have been split apart for a lot longer than when humans and the Pokemon of these regions were first divided. Still, it's crazy to think that there might've been evidence of my kind all around us without us remotely considering it, granted, the architecture is the last thing that would've been on our minds…

"Ok, I think we've gone deep enough: The others shouldn't be able to spot us. Let's get some light."

Summoning an Aura Sphere into my hand, I blink as my eyes adjust to the blinding blue that pierces the encompassing shadows. The murals surrounding us are different from the ones we saw outside of the bedchamber, not really indicating any kind of direction, but more-so telling a kind of story. Signs of prosperity, with rows of barley and depictions fig trees that stretch beyond the walls and onto the ceiling over us, as if we were walking through an orchard rather than a tunnel; signs of destruction, from dust storms to other natural disasters and of men and Pokemon alike working together to save each other from the chaos; but most of all signs of the titan Pokemon engaging in everyday life with the people that lived here. The titans weren't just powerhouse fighters or protectors: It looks like they were caretakers, companions. They seemed to have been relied upon as members of the community in ancient times.

A trickle of unease flicks at the back of my neck, as if we're being watched, and I shoot a glance behind me to see if we've been followed. There's no one. I can't sense anybody close by either—not on this level or the ones above us. The air is stale here, the way ahead dark, and the figures in the murals carry an empty, impersonal gaze. For whatever splendor this place may have once had, it's desolate and suffocatingly lonely now.

Our first exploration of the upper levels already gave us a good idea of how lost we could get in this place, so we mark our trail with pieces of red string for every turn we take. There's no main tunnel like above, so we're left to walk around, but without taking an interest in the many empty, rotting chambers and some of the tunnels only rounding us back in the direction we came from: We find ourselves going both up _and_ down, but nevertheless deeper and deeper into the ruins until we start to wonder if we're even still in them at all. The stairs dividing each level are short, but long. It's no problem for us to scale them, but they make it feel like we're venturing farther than we ever meant to go.

Because we never found any signs of civilization above ground beyond the Concealed Ruins, and because the ruins themselves were built into the face of a cliff, our entire team has already considered the possibility of there having been a largely underground society here. Maybe not for farming, of course, but for the other aspects of their lives: One big, community living space. Before we found the bedchamber, we had nearly ruled that idea out due to the size of the upper levels, but it's starting to look like we were right the first time.

Ri's the first to hear it: Rushing water. We follow the sound and soon after, the air begins to smell a little cleaner, but the path doesn't lead to an exit. We see light start to peek out from above us in cracks running along the ceiling, hinting that in the very least we're not far from the surface. Now though, we've entered a part of the ruins that's been destroyed in comparison to the still tunnels we've left behind us. Time hasn't been as kind to the structures here, the water we heard earlier appearing in channels and flooding parts of the ruins so that we have to loop around another way and thick, deep roots soon burrow all around us. They climb down every wall, stretch down every passage, and curve around every doorway. Some of them as are thick us and some even bigger—big enough to match a Machamp's girth. A part of me kept help but wish we could see what kind of ancient forest is feeding off this ancient place, but in a way we're already seeing it: There's an entire ecosystem all its own down here.

From the looks of it, the water was once controlled by a network of small canals. There's no telling if all of it is safe, but we do find a spring to drink and fill our canteen from—resting for a moment and taking in the foreign, subterranean world we've found ourselves in. There's enough light here that we don't need my Aura Sphere anymore and I let it disperse as, with a sigh, I plop down on one of the roots gnarled at our feet.

"I can't believe we haven't found the end to this place yet," I grumble. Usually we move a lot faster than we've been going, but stopping to see everything hasn't helped. "Aren't you ready to head back?" Squinting up at one of the bright cracks above, I add, "More importantly, do you think it's too early for lunch?"

"It depends," with a huff of relief, he takes a seat next to me, "If I say 'no,' which of those questions would you rather it be to?"

I gently cuff him in the shoulder and he chuckles. Of course he already knows my answer. Swinging our Treasure Bag around to my lap to see what we have: Plenty for a decent meal, to my surprise. Beyond what we pack out of habit, there's still some ingredients leftover from yesterday's lunch that Chimecho made for all of us. The bread's a bit hard, but we packed away the vegetables well enough that they're not bad. There's spinach for us both, cheese and tomato for him, and cucumber and mushrooms for me. With a pair of light sandwiches quickly made and apples to share for dessert, we've soon done well for ourselves.

I instantly perk up at the crunch of the sandwich between my teeth and the earthy, umami taste hitting my tongue. For what little there is to it, the flavor is rich. I prefer the warmer seasons, but it almost has me looking forward to the cold and the new harvest it'll bring any day now. Pokemon can sustain many types of crops all year round that wouldn't grow off-season otherwise, but there are some exceptions: sumac, wild grapes, all kinds of mushrooms—some plants that I had never heard of before last year, when my partner pointed out new things we could forage and Chimecho set out autumn bounties in the mess hall. Fall's a good time for good meals.

Out of the corner of my eye, I find Ri staring at me over his own, half-eaten lunch, wearing a reminiscent smile that I can't quite place. "What is it?" I ask, subconsciously wiping at my mouth after taking another bite.

"Nothing much, I guess," he answers with a shrug, his eyes moving downward. "I'm just thinking back to when we first became a team. I mean, you've always loved to eat, but you kind of worried me at first."

My brows furrow, "Worried you?"

He shakes his head and opens his mouth to speak, pauses as if to reconsider, then finally returns his gaze to me and explains, "I don't think most people would notice… You didn't look bad, but you didn't look completely healthy either. And when you started having all of those nightmares, it got worse. It wasn't until later, when you started getting a full-night's sleep and eating enough, that you seemed better. Since you used to be human, I thought maybe the reason you hadn't been doing well was because you had been lost for a while." Again, he flicks his gaze away. "Never would've imagined how bad it really was, the way the Dark Future was. I guess it makes me happy seeing you like this."

I feel a steady warmth creep up to my cheeks. It's an awkward sentiment, but still sweet and I know where he's coming from. Because things like that have crossed my mind when I've watched Grovyle and the others adjust to our new lives here in the past. There's trouble, as always, but there's no Resistance, no starvation, no more wondering every single day who's going to die next or if it'll be our last. I've said it before about I don't think I'll ever entirely get used to peace—there's a good chance that things will never be truly peaceful for us as it is—so there are times when moments of peace just feel… surreal. To think that, for the rest of our lives, maybe we won't have to worry what'll happen when we close our eyes or where our next meal is going to come from, because things are good here and somehow, by some blessing, we get to enjoy that.

After a moment's silence, Ri clear's his throat and then pulls his lips back into a teasing grin, "I just hope all the food you put away and all this time sitting around these ruins doesn't turn you part-Munchlax."

Just like that, the warmth in my face goes from steady to blazing hot. "Well, if I'm part-Munchlax then give me a bite of _your_ sandwich!" is all I can say to snap back at him.

He bursts into laughter, recoiling back and stretching his food out of my reach as I swipe for it with one hand. Not to be beaten, I drag my legs up and crouch on top of the root to reach further. Clumsily dodging me, my partner has to almost flatten himself onto his back in turn. In retaliation, he tries to grab my sandwich, but I shove what's left of it in my mouth before he can get it. A second later, I'm leaning over him and we continue our brief mock-battle until he accidentally slips to the ground, facing me—still laughing and clutching his own to his chest.

But he abruptly stops, his smile fading as his gaze falls not back on me, but beneath the root. His expression is one of bafflement before twisting into some mix of horror and intrigue, and he shifts himself further away—never tearing his eyes from what he sees. Unable to resist my curiously despite the sick feeling that begins to gnaw at my gut, I crane over the root to see what's beneath me.

And find that we've been sitting on a grave.

Coming face-to-face with a human skull jars me enough that I swiftly draw myself back and lose my balance, falling on the opposite side of the root and into a tangle of smaller ones overlapping a pile of stone. I panic, tearing away at the coils I land in—a hacking cough breaking free from my lungs as, for a moment, the last bit of bread sticks in my windpipe and chokes me. I kick off the rocks, dragging myself further away on my back. This all happens within the matter of a minute, and after that we're frozen.

I know that it's likely been here for hundreds—maybe thousands—of years. In a way, I've always known that something like this was bound to turn up eventually in an exploration, be it human or Pokemon remains. A part of me is even chastising, reminding me that I saw this and worse in the Resistance. None of these reminders stop me from being disturbed by the sight. My partner though, who's never seen a human beyond the rare vision we've shared through our aura, can't maintain the same fright that I have. His inquisitive nature wins out in the end and, cautiously, he crawls toward it.

I want to tell him not to, but I stay quiet. Once the initial terror begins to ebb away, the unthinkable curiosity returns—not enough to beckon me over, but enough that I can't stop him. Instead, all I can do is observe.

The bones are so fragile that it's a wonder they've managed to stay together for all this time, so it doesn't matter how careful he is: Ri doesn't even touch them—just the roots encasing them—and they begin to weakly crumble apart. He grimaces, still it's inevitable. From the looks of it, the skeleton is not only twisted among the roots, but also partially buried beneath the earth. I can't think of any way we'd be able to get to it without breaking it apart, not with help or with the kind of tools we have. Not that I can imagine anyone in the Guild wanting to study it anyway…

Something else among the rocks, and roots, and bones pulls at his attention enough that he continues his small investigation. At first, it blends in so well with it all that I wouldn't have thought twice about it—a stone slab lying face down beneath one the skeletal hands. It's made of a different kind of stone though compared to the rest of the rock, possessing a golden luster that reminds me of pyrite. Although it looks preserved—if tarnished—the mineral appears to have begun to seep into the fingers and fossilize them. It makes it just a little harder for Ri to break them apart in order to get the slab, and the way he clenches his teeth at the sound makes it seem like he's silently apologizing to the bones for disturbing them this way.

"What is it?" I ask, finally finding my voice again.

"I-I don't know…" he flips it over, shaking his head, "A tablet, I think, but I can't read it."

Steeling myself, I take the long way around the roots until I'm back at his side, squat down, and take a look. There's no way I could read it either though: It's not in any kind of language that I recognize, dead or no. As distinct as the inscriptions on the slab are, they don't look similar to anything, which is strange, because most of the writing we've seen here is in the language of the Unown and we've been able to translate it just fine.

Looking it over, I'm pretty sure it _is_ made of pyrite. It's a weird material for something like this, because pyrite is a hard stone. It's not like most tablets that were drawn from wet clay and left to dry or fired. Even gold would've been more malleable to work with. So my only guess someone wanted to treat this as a treasure, but make it strong enough to last. Why though? What exactly is this?

My partner places a hand against my shoulder. Even though he was a lot calmer about finding the body than me at first, I can tell the whole thing is starting to get to him now. He won't tear his eyes off of it, even as he talks to me, "Maybe we should get moving, Lira. I don't think I want to sit around this place for much longer."

 _Me either…_ Even if it means going deeper into the ruins, all I want to do is get away from this place too. Disturbing a grave wasn't exactly on our list of plans for the day, no matter how mystifying the resting place. We repack whatever we have left out and set off, all the more curious, but rightfully shaken.

Moreover, I don't think we just walked through a tomb or burial ground either, otherwise we would've found a lot more than just that one skeleton. It was _half_ buried, lying face-down in the earth. There was no sign of any attempt to mark or care for the remains. It doesn't look good. Maybe they were one of the last humans trying to etch out a life here, but that only makes me worry if we're going to stumble onto any of their old friends next.

And again, I can't shake the feeling of being watched.


	8. What's Kept Buried

Since this part of the ruins has been more exposed to the elements than others, it hasn't survived the years as well. We've already made it past the canals and stepped down a few levels, but spurts of water here and there continue to seep from above through hairline cracks in the earth and much of the murals and stonework we saw earlier have eroded away. Although we can still feel clean air coming from somewhere, the chambers and passageways begin to return to their darkened, enclosed state—and while we were fine travelling through them beforehand, I can tell that the _both_ of us are on edge after our morbid discovery.

Ri hangs onto the slab, still trying to decipher it, while I maintain our light source. He's silent the entire time, concentrating so hard that it's like he's trying to use some kind of telepathy to understand it. No matter how much time passes though, neither of us can figure it out. It's not in the language of the Unown, or footprint ruins, or resembles anything like any human writing: None of the symbols even match any of the hieroglyphs we've seen in other temples. I even tried using the Dimensional Scream on the slab, but it's like the universe itself doesn't want us to read into it. Maybe Grovyle or Dusknoir will know something, but I get a strong impression that they won't. After all, even if most of what we studied was related to Temporal Tower and the Time Gears, we spent _years_ of research into this sort of thing. I don't see them knowing any more than we would on this.

Some stone breaks away under one of my feet. "Watch your step," I say, "This area might not be as stable as some of the others." The last thing I want right now is to fall through the floor. I'm not afraid of getting stuck or injured, but I can't shake this paranoid feeling I have. Maybe it's because of everything we've already gone through or because I'm still shaken by what we've found here, but I'm nervous. A strong voice in my head says that we should head back. An even stronger compulsion to see our discovery through to the end defies it.

"I just can't figure it out," my partner sighs, motioning to the slab, "Unless it's from some language we've never seen before, but… I can't think of any language we _haven't_ researched yet, unless you know some more human ones?"

I shake my head. With the exception of understanding Pokemon, humans seemed to have globalized language. For the most part, anyway. There are words specific to certain regions, but I don't think many humans have trouble speaking to each other. As for written languages, there are multiple ones, but they don't often vary too much for people to have trouble reading them. I guess there could be others, but none that I know of.

"That's what I was afraid of," he offers a small, half-smile, "You know, if languages are supposed to stem from the old ones we already know, you'd think we'd be able to recognize _something._ "

"Well, the language we have is lot different than footprint runes and the Unown," I shrug, "Actually, it's more like human writing."

"That's probably because we adopted so much from outside the continents though," he replies. Then he blinks in thought, waving his hand as he tries to find the words to process them. "Yesterday, I was talking to Dusknoir: He said that he'd heard of another theory that would back up humans being here. He called it pan…" After a moment's pause, he snaps his fingers, "Pangaea! It's where all of the land in the world used to be one, massive continent, but eventually split apart. If that's the case, maybe whatever group of humans used to write like this could still be out there in some other region."

My ears pin back as I wince. "Let's not add anymore mysteries onto all of this until we've figured out at least a small part of what happened here…"

"It's just a theory," he snorts good-naturedly, "Who knows if there's anything to it or not."

Before we can go much farther, Ri's squints ahead and stops us both with an outstretched hand. It's not like there's much to see though, just more of the same for the most part. We've nearly reached the end of yet another long hallway. I brighten the intensity of my aura sphere anyway though. Nothing really look's different at first, but then I see the way the light catches against the wall to our left. There's an opening to yet another chamber like one of the many others we've already passed, but there's something about the murals around the doorway—or what's left of them—that stands out.

The murals we've seen before portrayed nature at its best and its worst, but always with humans and Pokemon working together to support one another. This… this isn't anything like that. First off, there's not much that's 'natural' about the way it looks: The style is far more geometric than anything else we've seen and there's no sign of nature at all. The trees are replaced with towers and the flowing robes that the people were shown in are covered by a layer of heavy armor—not just the humans, but the Pokemon too, like their prepared for war. One human looms over the others, standing with his one arm stretched out and a spear in his other hand. Meanwhile, the other bear chains.

There's no harmony in this: It's just a hostile takeover.

I've seen this kind of thing once before, in the Dark Future, when humans would use Pokemon as tools of survival. In some cases, like with my parents, Pokemon worked together. In others, it was just a means of living, but at least there was some respect mixed with distrust. Still, that was far from the truth for everyone. I've seen the worst that human beings can be: I've lived it. But at the same time, I've never considered them to be anymore cold than any other creature I've met. Whatever their species, nothing bars anyone from making a moral choice.

There's just one thing, I guess, that gives humans a small step-up though: Their ingenuity. Most humans aren't as strong, or fast, or fierce as Pokemon. Except for a handful of us with rare abilities, we can't even use any moves the same ways that Pokemon can. What humans do have though is the power to build and create beyond anything like any other species. They're rarely content with living as they are, but constantly seek to invent new things and improve their ways of life. Sometimes though, that comes at a cost to others—a cost often on a much larger scale than a typical act of greed or selfishness, or with a blurred sense of morality based on allegiance rather than conscience.

For once, my partner doesn't seem all that excited at a new find. I can't blame him. I just can't think of anything to say to him either. What even is there to say?

Besides an insatiable curiosity, I don't know what draws us to investigate the murals closer, but we do. We practically move in unison into the nearby chamber. Like the others we've seen, they wrap around the walls. The chains are held even more tautly by the figures on the walls, who seem to draw back from the sheer force of whatever they're trying to contain. They all lead to one place, the farthest wall, with only one being painted across it: A quadruped with a tail like a lightning bolt; vivid, black stripes along its muscled limbs and torso; and a pair of saber-fangs.

Ri steps forward, his hand slowly reaching up to touch the mural with eyes wide in fascination as he whispers under his breath, "What kind of Pokemon is that…?"

I shake my head in disbelief. Not at the question, but because of what we're seeing. "That's not a regular Pokemon, Ri: That's a Raikou!" Despite how tense I am, I manage to keep my voice low. There's no reason for it, but I feel like we've stumbled on something we shouldn't have.

"What's a Raikou?"

"Humans have a lot of old stories about Pokemon like this," I answer as I walk up to him, reaching for his free hand with my own. I need something to stable me right now, because all of the paranoia I've been feeling down here seems to reach its peak. And if we need to move, I'm dragging him out of here with me as quickly as possible. "It's one of three Pokemon known as the Legendary Beasts: Raikou, Entei, and Suicune. Some people say they were born from the elements they represent: Others say that Ho-Oh resurrected them from normal Pokemon."

It's rare for me to know something that he doesn't, but in a way it makes sense since a lot of those stories are tied to mankind. I don't know how much of a presence the Beasts would have here in the Isolated Regions. Still, they're _legendaries_. That's what rattles me so much about the mural. Were there humans who actually thought they could control one of them like that? _Did_ they really do it? I don't even understand why a Raikou would be here anyway and the idea of anyone—human or Pokemon—trying to control one is beyond me. We've beaten plenty of legendaries, but I still wouldn't go against any of them unless I had to, nevermind _this_.

"Look at this…" Ri gently tugs at his hand. He has to call my name and repeat what he said for me to snap out of my daze and let him go though. Pulling himself away, he moves further along the wall where we spot an indentation carved in the stone. Even though the area is damaged from the wear of time, its clean edges show that the small cavity was intentional. My partner stares at the slab in his hand, then holds it up to parallel its shape with that of the cavity.

From what we can tell, it's a match.

He presses his hand again to the wall, running his fingers down its surface. "I don't think this is pyrite, but should we give it a try?"

"What?"

"Putting the slab in that notch," Ri explains, momentarily looking upward as he backs up under it, "It's a little too high for us to reach. I'll hold you up and you press the slab into it. It can't hurt to try to see if it does anything."

Taking a breath, I nod. We've come this far… After handing me the slab, he presses his side to the wall, sets his legs apart, and cups his hands in front of him. I shrug off our Treasure Bag and, using his shoulder for support, place my foot in his palms. A moment later, I'm lifted off the ground with my other leg braced against the wall. The cavity aligns almost to my neck: Human-size. Besides a few places where the stone has eroded, the slab fits—even though the cavity is only a couple centimeters deep. I easily slide it in.

 _Click!_

The faint sound catches me off guard, but even more so that the slab stays in place when I move my hand away. Then the writing along its surface comes to life, brightening with a sickly gold that quickly spreads across the walls to affect the other hieroglyphs. Ri and I are both startled enough that we push back, losing our balance. He catches me by the waist and we shuffle to the heart of the chamber, watching the entire area ignite in that same acidic color. There's a distant groan, something that sounds as mechanical as a heavy, rusted gate lowering and as eerie as a Donphan's dying gasp. And here and then, under that, there's the occasional click echoing from the passageways. Then—after a minute or two and with a finale, resounding clang—it just stops.

The radiating glyphs, however, stay. It's pretty dim, but bright enough that I can disperse my Aura Sphere. They seem to stretch further down into the tunnels, but don't seem to affect the way we came from: Instead, that direction remains blanketed in darkness.

Ri and I share a look, but say nothing. I know he wants to ask me if I've seen anything like this. I haven't. Human technology can be extremely advanced in comparison to what we have, but this is beyond me. It almost looks like some kind of magical energy. Whatever it is, it feels completely unnatural: A living, overwhelming, corrosive force that even seems to taint the air around us.

Well… we did something. Who knows what we did, but we did _something_. And the longer we have to dwell on that, the more I want to turn back.

For the first time since we came down here, Ri at last seems to get the same idea. "Nevermind learning more about humans," he says, keeping his voice low as if he's afraid of disturbing something else, "This looks like it's far from anything we've seen before." He swallows, "Maybe… maybe we should go and come back later with more of the team. If Dusknoir or Grovyle don't know anything, then maybe we can ask the Guildmaster."

I nod, remaining quiet. I see something in my partner that I haven't in a long time, not like now: I see fear. Every now and then on our adventures, Ri's more timid nature that he had when we first formed our team bubbles up in a case of nerves. However, I've haven't seen him look so flighty since we fought Uxie's Groudon illusion. Even before then, he was rapidly growing as a brave, confident leader. Right now though, he looks almost as insecure and afraid as the day I first met him. He has to sense that's there's something wrong about this energy too. That's more than enough reason for me to listen to my gut, grab our Treasure Bag, and get going. I shrug it across my shoulder, turning to the chamber entrance.

Then I freeze.

Over my partner's shoulder, from the depths of the passageway, twin orbs pierce through the shadows. Not with the sickly yellow of the glyphs, but with an electrifying light that radiates with a ferocity I've known only in the most powerful of beings.

" _Get down_!" No sooner have the words torn from my throat, a massive shape ignited by a wave of static comes charging at us. I throw my body over my partner, toppling us both to the ground, a mere second before it lunges—its elongated claws faintly grazing our bodies as they just miss us. Instead, the air is filled with a horrific screech as they tear against the wall when the creature rebounds off it. Ri and I roll back the way it came before righting ourselves to face it in a crouching position.

'It' is none other than a living manifestation of the now ruined mural: A Raikou. Cyan sparks glisten off his fur in frantic, erratic bursts of raw energy. Thin, aged scars carve over lean muscle across his shoulders and forelegs, but his claws and saber tusks possess the strong, razor edges of youth. Vermillion irises blaze with such a fire that I can almost feel the heat of them as they bore into us with an inextinguishable fury.

There's no point in trying to reason with him: If either of us had the chance to get a word in, he attacks us a second time before we can, charging at us in a fierce wave of energy. We throw ourselves out of the chamber and around the entryway—again missing his strike, but the force behind the electrical currents propels them enough that they catch up to us. I gasp at the sharp pain arching down my back, spilling across every nerve in my body, and stumble.

Ri tries to pull me up so we can escape back the way we came, but I jerk my arm away from him. We can't go back—not without risking the legendary finding the others. Raikou's blocked our only other exist though! Nostrils flaring, he subtly drums his claws along the floor and remains as tense as a coiled spring.

I don't give him the chance to strike a third time. Summoning another Aura Sphere into my hands, I hurl it at him and run after it—my partner quickly following after me. He braces himself to take the blast head on, but my aim is off: The sphere vaults into the earth before him in an explosive haze of dust and rock. Those few seconds of cover are just what we need. I throw my legs forward and dive back, twisting my body to the right with my left arm raised guardedly above me as I slide under the Thunder Beast. The minute I've passed him, I spring back to my feet and take off without a second glance. Ri's shadow careens across the wall on my right. He vaulted himself over, now kicking off the brick to land behind and then catch up to me.

Of course though, that little trick only gave us a small break. Soon enough, a fearsome roar trails after us. This isn't good: Like many of the others we've come across, the passage seems to carry on endlessly. The space is too narrow and Raikou is too quick! We Riolu may be fast, but I doubt either of us is capable of outpacing an incarnation of lightning itself—definitely not on a straight path like this! With little room to dodge, we're as good as a sitting target!

No sooner does that thought come to mind do we hear the loud drum of feet closing the distance. He's already gaining!

Ri acts first. He uses Bone Rush, but the staff he creates is smaller than normal. He grits his teeth, surging more of his aura into it to condense the rod and I can nearly feel the thrum of unstable power emitting from it. I don't have to worry about him trying to stand his ground: Instead, he throws the staff in an upward arc.

He's not used to that kind of technique with the move, made obvious by the wild spin of the attack, but luckily he's always had good aim and the novice, reckless cast only benefits the staff's volatile creation. It's almost as good as any Blast Seed! It hits the upper wall and erupts in a flash of white, cyan, and a nauseating green. The damage is far more extensive than my own hurried blast, toppling support beams and ripping out chunks of the walls and ceiling in an avalanche of rubble.

We don't stop. Even if we've successfully blocked him off, we aren't taking chances. For a minute though, we do slow down. The withdraw of so much of his aura in a single blow takes a lot of Ri's stamina and he fights to catch his breath as we move. Just once, he looks over his shoulder to the damage: I can see the disgruntlement in his eyes, upset with himself for the small sacrifice of the ruins.

However, he quickly shakes his head and picks up the pace to hasten us both. "See anything up ahead?" he huffs.

"No," squinting in the dim, nauseating light of the glyphs, I can't make out much of anything beyond the tunnel. "But I think it's safe to say this could be our only exit." It'll have to be. At least until we can find another way around that Raikou.

Here and there we pass chamber after chamber, but the way only veers a couple of times and each new route we try only lead to dead ends. The murals in this area are just as artificial and grotesque as the others. Some seem like the faces of demons rather than humans altogether, and the sickening light of the glyphs zipping by as we run past them makes my head reel.

What would a legendary want with this place?! The titans are one thing—there were made to guard places like this—but one of the three Beasts? It doesn't make any sense, and if that mural we saw was anything to go by then I'd imagine he'd have wanted to leave this place as dead and abandoned as possible rather than stick around!

I blink. What if that's it? It was nearly half a year ago, but what if we somehow brought him back when we uncovered the Concealed Ruins by beating the titans? We didn't immeadiately investigate and it took us this long to search this deep in, so he could've returned at any time, just waiting for someone to show. But that would beg the question: Why now? Why not chase us out when we first got here?

We barely have time to drag ourselves to a halt before the way ahead drops off into nothing. We've reached a wide platform with a drop that leads down about twenty—maybe even thirty—meters to a massive pit with only the connecting stairwell bridging the way to the bottom. It's collapsed in the middle, but it'll have to do: It's still hard to see, but maybe we can find a tunnel somewhere. Before I can make my way down though, Ri grips me tightly by the shoulder and motions for me to take a second glance.

My throat tightens. Again, it's hard to tell, but the way the shadows catch the shapes make it distinct. Row upon row of stone cists encompass a large dais in the middle of the pit, with an exceedingly more ornate sarcophagus resting on top of it. Human statues larger than life fit in harsh recesses in the walls, bearing weapons with their eyes wide as silent, eternal watchmen of the dead. We really are in a tomb this time.

There's still no choice. Looking to each other to steel ourselves for whatever we might find, Ri and I make our way down quickly and carefully. The jump is wide, but easy enough for us, and we reach the bottom without trouble. The real issue is when we look around and find no way out.

Alright. We'll have to make a stand then. At least now we have enough room to put up a good fight. The stench of decay is long gone, but there's something foul about the air here nonetheless. I don't think he could catch our scent, so if we could hide out and ambush him, we could start off with the advantage. I run to one of the statues, climbing up its back and ducking behind its shoulders. I'll have to stay almost directly behind it to keep out of view, but at least I'll have the high ground and can see when he comes in. Ri, on other hand, takes the opposite approach. I can hear him shuffling among the cists until he finds one that—I'm assuming—is empty. After that, we just wait.

And we don't have to wait long.


	9. For the Homeland

The brief moment we had to come up with a plan fortunately was just enough to subside the initial panic that had set in earlier—even as the sound of heavy feet followed by a low growl echoes off the walls. My back pressed flat against the cold stone, I keep still with a baited breath and fight the urge to look. I can't shake the feeling that the slightest action will give us away.

Despite our effort to maintain the element of surprise though, the Thunder Beast doesn't even try. As if by intent, his every step clues us in on his distance from us. And then he speaks in a rolling bass like an encroaching storm, "Courage, little pups. Where's your fighting spirit?" His voice is laced with jeering malice. "Is the way of your kind now to hide in the face of a challenge, or has your masters' cowardice infected your very nature?"

 _Masters?_ My brows furrow. I'm guessing he means whoever taught us how to use aura, or the Guildmaster if he's been watching us for all this time. Either way, I don't take the bait. His goading is only met a resounding silence. He growls again in frustration, pacing the chamber.

If Ri and I can just wait long enough until he's centered himself between the two of us, that'd be our best bet: We could attack him from opposites sides. I reach out with my aura to try to sense where the both of them are. Ri's signature is so familiar to me that there's a chance I'd recognize it in a crowd of thousands. He's practically hiding in the heart of the cists, low to the ground with his feet crouched under him so he can spring into action. Then there's the Raikou's aura, which is so overpowering that it practically blinds my ability to sense anything around him. It pushes back against my senses, but I can grasp his position enough to tell that he's getting closer…

And then I feel something that makes my breath catch. I can _feel_ him staring at me. Not with his eyes, but with his own life energy—pushing back as though he's reacting to mine. Has he actually spotted me?! I don't know, but I do know that I don't have time to waste! Reaching into our treasure bag, I clasp a pair of Iron Thorns and shuffle one into each hand. Raikou growls again and I hear him bounding toward my hiding place. I jump, launching myself off of the statue's shoulder and into the air, flinging the thorns at him no sooner do I have a clear shot.

The clamber of a rock slab falling away from one of the coffins is followed by my partner rushing into view. Not a second after I land, Ri bounds past me with Quick Attack to ram himself into our opponent in a swift strike from the left before backing off to ready himself for another attack, summoning his staff. With the added light, I can see one of the Iron Thorns embedded into the Thunder Beast's side.

Caught between the two of us and with the rows of cists acting as new obstacles, he's more hesitant with his counter attack, but just barely. Sparks build upon his form before racing across his fur in an electrical blast as he fires a Discharge in all directions. We both fall back: I hurtle my body over a nearby cist and duck behind it for cover. Raikou charges after me—again his speed catching me off guard while his jaws spread wide. Reaction alone spares me from being caught in his maw as I fall on my back, driving my foot against the cist's cover where it hangs slanted. As the heavy slab is thrown into a twisting arc, it knocks him by his unprotected stomach and I shift away before either can touch ground again.

I wince when a sharp pain pricks my foot and squint down to see the missing Iron Thorn hiding in the shadows. While Ri jumps forward to attack Raikou a second time, I recover it—spinning around once more to find my partner holding off the legendary in locked combat with his staff braced between the latter's fangs. With him kept still I lunge forward and drive the thorn through Raikou's calf, feeling the sharpened metal skid across bone as it digs through his flesh. He howls, and my partner is able to free his staff and swing it against our opponent's skull. Not to lose the moment's advantage either, I use Force Palm right over the newly-made wound.

It throws us both, a cloud of dust erupting as we each skid back. I manage to brace myself, but Raikou is thrown sideways along one of the cists. Despite our barrage of attacks he's still quick to get up, although I do notice the tense way his body favors one leg over the other. The added blast drove the thorn even further through his tough skin that I had alone. Good: Moving won't be comfortable with it jabbed in and I doubt it'll fall out anytime soon.

It doesn't stop him completely though. His eyes turning a golden hue, Ri and I are both swept up by a charged, multi-colored energy—Extrasensory. Before either of us can even think of a way to break free from it, Ri's tossed like a ragdoll into me and we both are thrown against the stone coffins in a straight, unbroken line before colliding into the far wall. Each impact rocks me with a new wave of pain and the final hit leaves me breathless as we drop to the floor.

Looking up from the ground, I see a path of destruction followed after us: The spiraling dust in the air like a shroud of heavy rain and rock scattered along the earth from each collision. I grimace, pushing myself up only to drop back down on one knee as my body screams in protest. It was just one attack, but the type advantage combined with the multiple hits did a lot of damage—maybe even more than our combined strikes had earlier.

The legendary propels himself through the darkened haze with his claws outstretched. Thinking fast, Ri uses Copycat just in time: A red-violet energy covers him before dissipating as his own eyes begin to radiates with that same, golden light as Raikou's had. The latter is caught in mid-air by the Psychic move and I summon an Aura Sphere to fire quickly into his chest. Then, in a repeat of his own attack, my partner sends him flying into the dais in the chamber's center.

For a second, all is still. It goes on for so long that I begin to think that maybe it's over, but that hope proves itself all too wrong as he steadily begins to stand once again and a violent eruption of electricity rises with him. _This guy just won't stay down…_ I'm not sure if we'll be able to say the same for us if we take another massive hit like before though.

The electricity is concentrated into a swarm of raining, arrow-like bolts that are fired our way as he uses Spark and we both take off at a run along the perimeter of the chamber. The impact of each bolt sends a wave of charged air licking at our heels and it's so close that I can feel the static clinging to the back of my neck. When the worst has passed, I jump up to rebound off yet another one of the large statues—vaulting myself from one of its arms this time with my partner right behind me. He surprised me as he takes me by the hand mid-jump, but then positions himself in a silent command: As he draws himself in front of me and tightens the muscles in his chest, I use Circle Throw to launch him even further across the room.

I land first, forced to flee back behind the cists once again as the last remnants of the bolts are fired my way. Ri arcs his own descent directly at the Thunder Beast as he uses his High Jump Kick. This time, however, the latter is ready for our two-pronged attack. He adjusts his stance in time to my partner's drop, catching his leg in his jaws and biting down hard before flinging and pinning him to the ground. I cry out, diving out of my hiding place with another Aura Sphere ready to fire only for Raikou to use Extrasensory once more to send me flying—this time landing among the coffins in a heap of stone.

I jerk myself up, but when I rise I can't help the smirk that pulls against my lips, because my failed attack turned actually into good distraction. In the few seconds it took for Raikou to repel me, my partner used Copycat a second time—on the sarcophagus high above them on the dais. He pulls it down, the full weight of it slamming into Raikou and knocking him to the ground. I mimic the attack myself, skidding the legendary across the earth and to opposite wall, where—for the third time—Ri uses Extrasensory again for us both to tear one of the large statues free from the wall and send it crashing down on top of the Thunder Beast.

I hurry to my partner's side, platforming over the cists until I'm standing next to him on top of the dais just as he pushes himself from the floor. He sways for a moment and I press my hands gently against his back and chest to steady him. He gives me an appreciative nod in return, and then we both glance over to the fallen legendary.

He doesn't get up.

"Well, so much for preserving history…" Ri murmurs, his eyes roaming over the destruction of the battle, the once neat rows of coffins now broken with scattered rock along the earth and flying dust still spiraling in the air like a foreboding mist.

As I see a few bone fragments among the wreckage, my own quip escapes me, "Or for letting the dead rest in peace." I can practically see an angry mob of weary humans cursing us in the afterlife for the damage we've caused here.

My gaze comes back to the Thunder Beast, who shudders painfully beneath the mass of stone crumbled over him. _We can't just leave him here._ Once he recovers, there's no guarantee that he won't come after us. Maybe he'd even attack the rest of the Guild now. We could destroy the entrance of the chamber before we leave to trap him inside, but even if I thought Ri would agree to that even I have to admit that it doesn't completely settle right with me. He's strong enough, but it would feel like we were leaving him to die. We can't exactly take him prisoner either though, and I doubt we could restrain him even if we could…

"What are we going to do with him?" I ask.

Bracing himself enough to stand on his own, Ri shuffles down the dais' steps, "Now that he can't try anything, talking to him wouldn't hurt."

Watching his subtle limp, I can't help but pout at that as a sudden irritation grips me. "Really?" I follow him down, "Do you want to invite him to camp for some tea too? I think Chimecho packed some biscuits."

He glances over his shoulder at me and grins, "Sometimes I think if you were anymore sarcastic, Arceus himself would appear and tell you to take it down a little."

With a pointed wave, I reply, "I'm sorry, but I think Sparky over there is more interested in putting us in a couple of those coffins than he is in a friendly chat."

To my surprise, my words are answered with a harsh laugh. Not from my partner, but from Raikou himself. The action jars a few loose stones from the pile overtop him, and he paws at the floor with his claws carving at the surface in an anxious sort of way. Once he's caught his breath and we've stepped closer—just out of range of him by the chance he can still force himself free—he glares up at us with a cruel smile, "Better listen to her, pup: She's exactly right. If I could reach either of you, I'd grant you the warrior's death you both clearly desire."

"We never wanted to fight you," Ri counters, "You attacked us first."

"You might as well have called for war as soon as you entered these lands." He then pauses, thinking to himself with a twisted expression, then says, "No… even long before that. You signed off on your own deaths as soon as you bowed down to your masters."

There he goes again with that. "What are you talking about?" Ri asks.

But rather than answer, he pushes back with his own question, "Tell me, were you and yours sent ahead to scout this place while they remain hidden? Do you really think you can hide them for long? Even if you killed me now, there are others—they'll hunt you down. Then where will your loyalty be, pups? Because I doubt your masters would run to your defense as you would for them. Mankind knows n such spirit."

It's only then that it dawns on me, though even with that accidental confession I can't really believe it. _He thinks we belong to a Pokemon trainer…_ My mind flashes back to the mural we saw earlier and all of a sudden his anger becomes more justified. And more horrifying. Even other legendaries and mythical couldn't easily tell that I was a human, but somehow he was able to guess close to the truth. Close enough that he was confidently willing to give into that gut feeling and come after us.

My partner's ears flip back. He tilts his head a little to the side, pulling back the corners of his mouth into an awkward line. "You've got it all wrong. We're members of an exploration team, Team Crusade. And the other Pokemon with us are other members from Wigglytuff's Guild. We don't have human m-masters…" That last word passes his lips in an uncomfortable fumble.

"You're looking at a human though," I add, trying hard to keep my face emotionless as I stare back at the legendary. Admitting that is probably the last thing I should've done, but it might keep him from thinking that we're lying and, if the worst happens, I might be able to lure him away from the others later thanks to that fact.

His eyes widen before narrowing again at me for a long while. And he just stares, studying me carefully. His eyes ignite with a fire and his lips pull back into a snarl, but that's when Ri shuffles closer to me and laces his fingers between my own. He places himself in front of me, drawing me ever so subtly back behind him, with his own gaze never leaving the Thunder Beast's. He squeezes my hand, running his thumb gently along my skin in a comforting motion.

Raikou stares at us both for a moment longer, then scoffs, "Am I now?" His eyes drop downward. "What's that you have, boy? Around your neck?"

My partner also looks down and he pulls his necklace out from under the cover of his bandana with his free hand. "This is my Relic Fragment," he answers as he shows it to the legendary, "I was chosen by it so we could travel to other realms, like the Hidden Land."

Before he can explain more a look of recognition falls over the Raikou and he turns his head sourly, his claws again scraping against the earth. "Then you have nothing to fear from me, _Guardians,"_ he practically spits out the title, "Whatever you want with this place, just take what you came for and leave."

"That's… going to be a lot more complicated than you think," I breathe a small sigh of frustration. I move away from my fellow Riolu a little as I explain, "It's like Ri said, we're explorers. And we didn't come here as Guardians of Light: We came here to explore. We didn't even know about this place until a few months ago: We thought it was abandoned."

"It is, in a way," he answers, "All but by me, and I too would've abandoned it long ago if I could. I always dreaded the day of humanity's return, when they'd come to claim these lands again." He scowls, "You two play with fire by coming here. These ruins were sealed away with all their secrets for a purpose—to keep this world safe from the dark science man created here."

"Dark science?" my partner echoes. Soon enough though, his gaze follows mine along the walls as we both reach the same conclusion. Our eyes roam the still-lit hieroglyphs detailing the stone work, casting a dim, sickly glow over the entire chamber and beyond it into the many winding halls of the ruins.

"Mankind's first attempt to manipulate Pokemon—even legendaries—to their will," he explains further, "They were created to be the governors of creation itself, the world's caretakers and ambassadors of all life, but they wanted more." A low growl resonates from his throat. "They used their gifts of creation against us, and thought they could bend all Pokemon to their control. This place was the heart of their greatest rebellion."

"So you killed them after they tried to capture you…" I whisper, my mind's eye blurring with visions of what happened here. I don't need the Dimensional Scream to see it: I can imagine it well enough. "And this place was kept a secret all this time—by the other legendaries, I'm guessing. Why keep their technology at all though? Why not just destroy it?"

"And what about the titans in Aegis Cave?" Ri questions, "All of those tests to prove our worth before we could get here? What was point of them if no one was supposed to find this place?"

Raikou glances back and forth at the both of us, heaves a deep breath. "It wasn't a complete victory, pups." He shakes his head, "I protect this land, by not entirely by choice: I am bound to it, just as others are bound in other lands thanks to the same evil that keeps me here. It cannot be destroyed or else we risk binding ourselves to the earth forever.

"The titans, however, are bound only by their loyalty. The very purpose of their kind is to defend their homeland. So they protect this place, just as they always have, but—unlike their brethren—with a grander purpose in mind. Those tests weren't meant for you: They were meant for legendaries. To one of us, any of them would've been child's play." He grunts, then continues, "Although, it isn't to my surprise that you passed—given what you are."

We just stand there, absorbing all of the new information we've been given. It also explains why the punishment for failing the tests was so dire: No one—human or Pokemon—was supposed to ever find this place. It was just stupid rumors about treasure that made people try and pure luck that we actually succeeded. _So what now?_ I can't help but wonder. Will the legendaries try to cover this place up again, or is it too late for that now that the truth's out?

As I'm swept away mid-thought, Ri steps forward and begins to carefully dig the Thunder Beast out from under the rubble. Before I can tell him to stop, he turns to face me, "Help me get him out of here." Sensing my reluctance, he adds, "He already said that he won't hurt us. I believe him. He doesn't have a reason to lie."

For a fleeting moment I still hesitate, but inevitably I give in and squat alongside him to uncover the legendary. Little by little, the loose stones are moved away. Ri digs inside our bag for a Sitrus berry and gives it to him so he can recover part of his stamina. What's left of the statue is too massive for us to push off of him alone, but by using our aura to increase our strength and with Raikou summoning up enough of his own to help out, we manage to wriggle him free.

There's a long pause after that, where all three of us just take everything in and aren't really sure what to do next. Raikou paces a few steps away, looking up at the chamber's entrance, then paces again. Finally, he turns back to us—his hulking form towering over us before he then sits all the way to the ground.

"Climb on my back, pups. You'll need help getting out of here."

* * *

Once we made it out of the tomb, I began to walk beside Raikou, but we keep Ri on his back in order to keep him off his injured leg until we can get it checked out. It takes some effort to put together any conversation during the journey back through the labyrinth. Still, it works when we begin to talk about the string of disasters that have racked the world. Ri and I summarize all that happened thanks to Darkrai and the Thunder Beast describes things he's noticed about the land and about the passing of storms lately, about how intense a lot of them have become and how the weather's changed.

"I'm just not sure what we're supposed to do," Ri admits with his head down, "We're trying to look for Darkrai so we can get answers, but even if we find him in one piece I'm not sure how we're going to help fix things this time. Before, we had to find the Time Gears to set things right. Then, Palkia was able to fix the distortion of space before Darkrai could take things too far. Now though? Now we don't have any idea what's going on."

"Sometimes, things are best kept that way," Raikou grunts, and I get the feeling he's speaking from experience. "You and yours are free to examine these ruins the best you're able. I doubt it, but maybe there's something here that could do some good."

"The way you describe things, there's a fat chance of that," I retort. "The only 'good' stuff we've managed to find is a bunch of relics, papers, and an old key. And the only _interesting_ stuff here could apparently kickoff an apocalypse."

He halts mid-stride, looking back to face me. "What key?" he presses. The ferociousness in his gaze keeps me silent for a moment too long and he repeats the question with even greater intensity. Reaching into the Treasure Bag, I feel around until my hand clamps around its oddly-welded surface. He lowers his face down to my level as I pull it out, looking at the object for a few, dragging seconds only to turn around back the way we came.

My partner and I look at each other helplessly, with him caught up in the legendary's actions and me left standing in mute confusion before I chase after them both. "What are you doing?"

"I cannot help you," is all he says, "and even if I could, I wouldn't. However, you will find _one_ good secret among these ruins. Or at least something that should benefit us all for the time being." Although the winding halls aren't any less of a maze than when we first entered them, Raikou easily maneuvers his way around until we reach a set of stairs leading even further down into another series of tunnels. "Before the last humans who resided here were either killed or exiled, their leaders hid some of their greatest treasures in the depths of the ruins. Four of those leaders descended from lines of humans who served as masters over the titans."

At the mention of treasure and secrets, my partner's eye glimmer with intrigue, "I thought the titans only listened to legendaries."

"Typically, yes," he replies as we begin our descent further into the ruins. His expression turns sour as he speaks though. "Still, there are some rare exceptions. In the old days, select humans were given that authority as they worked side-by-side with the titans. Those humans were recognized by the treasures passed along from generation to generation. The titans themselves are well-meaning, but they rarely have the independence—or, simply, the brains—to act beyond their basic orders. They do not recognize good or evil the same way we do, only that nature should be cherished. If you can gather those treasures, however, they _will_ recognize you with the same authority as their former masters. Then, you may command them to leave Aegis Cave in order to watch over the land until these disasters can be stopped."

I look to the key in my hand, then cast him a suspicous glance, "For someone who doesn't want to help, that's a lot of trust you're putting onto us."

"This isn't for you. This is for my homeland," he answers, "Even if it is also my prison, I don't want the Pokemon who live here to suffer."

From then on, we march in silence. Down, down, deep into the tunnels for I think about eight or nine levels—so far that even the lights of the hieroglyphs eventually fade away until the rock walls surrounding us begin to deform into a more natural state. We enter some kind of cave system: We're so far underground that we must be _below_ the ruins. With Raikou guiding us though, it feels like we make the journey in no time.

He leads us to a series of doors so worn by the years that if he hadn't known already that they were there, Ri and I probably wouldn't have noticed them. Each one is marked a small lock, each lock leveled to a human's height—just like the slab's indentation was. I hand Ri the key and he shuffles up Raikou's back in order to reach. He has to brush away some of the eroded stone over the hold, but otherwise it's a perfect fit—noted by the soft _click_ that follows as it turns the latch.

The stone door begins to slide away, and Raikou lowers himself so my partner can slide off of him and enter the small chamber with me. Inside is a single chest painted a light blue and etched with silver sitting on top of a small platform. And when we look inside, we find only a sash that glistens like ice over a frozen lake—perfectly safe from the touch of time.


	10. The Long Road Ahead

The Ice Sash, Rock Sash, Steel Sash, and Ancient Ring: Four treasures that the long-departed humans of this land used to communicate with and control the four titan Pokemon who live there. They're not fancy names, but that's all we have to call them from one of the records we found in another chamber deep with the depths of the ruins—along with another key.

It's just like a scavenger hunt… if it weren't for the gritty mystery tied to everything, that is. I don't know the rest of our team and is the Guild was more upset at when we returned to camp: That we snuck away and got ourselves into danger or that we had another big adventure right under their noses. Either way it was still worth it, even if we only had the treasure and our injuries to bring back with us as proof since Raikou refused to meet the others—instead disappearing back through the labyrinth and taking the slab we had found with him, probably to somewhere where no one else could get their hands on it. After that, none of us run into him again. Sometimes, however, I still get the eerie sense that I'm being watched, and now I can't shake away the idea that maybe the Thunder Beast is keeping an eye on us. Ri and Grovyle never say a word, but from their reactions to the shadows at times my only guess is that they share the feeling.

The "competition" really is rough though. Even though we're supposed to be in this together, our Guildmates seem to be inventing new reasons to keep Ri and me at bay while they take their own turns hunting through the ruins. _Finish your paperwork, make sure we're all stocked on supplies, look over the artifacts to see if we can learn anything new from them:_ If they can think up a new way to keep us busy, they'll do it. It's all in good fun, but to quote Croagunk, apparently we've "hogged all the adventure and glory on practically every expedition" since we first joined the Guild…

I told him that if he ever wanted a trip to the Underground Lake or Spatial Rift so that _he_ could get his butt kicked by legendaries, then he could be my guest. Hey, maybe even Raikou wouldn't mind a rematch for his sake. But, of course, Croagunk only laughed at the idea—claiming that he was just speaking the thoughts of the silent majority and that he much preferred handling the business side of things as it was.

It's not like I don't get where they're coming from, but it's not like _we_ mean for any of these things to happen. We just do our jobs and somehow, one way or another, we get swept up into a mess. Call it fate, or instinct, or _something_ , but whatever hope I have to take things slow for _once_ disappears more and more each day. I want time to just enjoy exploring again, like when we went to Fogbound Lake or Sky Peak. Right now though, even the casual digs from last week are beginning to feel like an eternity ago; too short-lived a respite to have done any good. I want that long ago promised vacation, maybe two weeks or maybe a month of just traveling for the sake of it, to see everything we can without any hard goals in mind.

Heh, a break… _That's_ what's laughable. Could I even manage to shut out everything even if we got one? Just… turn off my mind for a while and let other people try to sort out the world's problems? I really don't know if I'd even be allowed that chance.

It's times like this where I start to wonder if maybe losing my memory might've been such a bad thing. If I drove myself anywhere near this crazy when I was leading the Resistance in the Dark Future, then it's a miracle that I could think straight in order to be any use to anyone at all. At least when my memories were gone, I was just a clean slate: I didn't know what I had lost, so the stakes weren't as high. And if I never found Grovyle again—if he had completed our mission without me and somehow the timeline hadn't completely reset so I just would've stayed in the past with my partner, just the two of us as a regular team—

No, I don't even want to think about what might've happened. I figured out who I was and found my family: That's good. I've learned a lot since then and continue to learn more each day: That's better. Each new discovery is just making me so unsure now…

We gave in. Ri needs to rest up his leg for a little while anyway. The others can have their turn, if that's what they want.

I tear open the flap to mine and Ri's tent with one hand, cradling a bunch of wild herbs and a glass of Lum berry juice in my arm. He'd usually be out enjoying the sun, but it's too hot and his torn thigh already keeps him fairly stuck without anyone's help. It's funny to watch him be the restless one for a change, fidgeting and struggling to keep himself busy with whatever we bring him. I hide back a smirk as I spot him picking at the hay of our bed and breaking the pieces into smaller ones alongside it. "It's just a few more days, Ri," I remind him teasingly, setting my load aside for a moment in order to pin the tent flap up and let some light in.

Without any help, it'd take at least three weeks for his leg to heal, so he can consider himself lucky that we can triple the time. Still, he pouts as I sit beside him, "Yeah, but everyone else will have already found the rest of the treasure by then. We can't just wait here."

"Well, technically, we _did_ find them first," I remind him, dragging out a pestle and mortar from our bag and grinding up some of the plants, "We just couldn't get to everything. Besides, Chimecho, Sunflora, and Loudred already found the third key this morning, so I wouldn't hold my breath about finding the last one."

He groans at that, pushing himself up. Picking up the Lum berry juice, my partner brings it to his mouth before his shoulders jolt in reaction to the taste. His lips twisting into a sour expression, a faint grunt reverberating from his throat, he blinks at me before sniffing at the glass, "What did you put in this?"

"You can't blame me this time; Bidoof helped prep it," I continue grinding the herbs until I have a fine dust gathered in the bottom of the container, "I think he used some kind of root. It should help speed things up." With that, I gently cuff his leg with the back of my fist.

"Not fast enough…" he murmurs, then seems to resign himself to being cared for. Ri stares at his drink for a moment longer, braces himself, then swings it down quick. As his ears pin back and his face squints in deeper disgust, I again have to hide back a grin.

I'm in the middle of changing out his bandage and applying the newly-ground medicine to the fresh one when I hear someone walking up to the tent and an unreadable shadow falls over us. I may not be able to recognize its shape, but the footsteps and loud, booming voice are unmistakable, "Guess who's back from the abyss?! One Rock Sash in tow!"

I look over my shoulder to see Sunflora and Loudred invite themselves inside; clearly tired, but with victorious smiles on their dusty faces. They still have all their gear of them, so I doubt they took the chance to rest before coming here. Since Chimecho's absent from the trio, she probably left to turn over the treasure alone or help with the dinner preparations. They must've been down in the ruins for hours. Still, while Sunflora keeps herself close to the open flap in order to soak up some long-desired sunlight, Loudred looks as if he's raring to get back to work no matter how claustrophobic the darkness.

My partner gives the Big Voice Pokemon a smile, but despite his attempts to look bored I recognize the excited blaze in his eyes, "Sorry, guys, but Lira already told me what happened."

The latter's triumphant expression falls flat and he shoots me an irritated look, "Spoilsport…" he mumbles and plops down to the patch of earth beside us. He scratches the back of his head, "Yeah, _wise-guy?_ Well, I bet you didn't hear _this_ bit of news! I'm up for taking the graduation exam again, so you two might have _me_ to deal with as a rival pretty soon!"

My ears twitch at the challenge. Actually, it'd be pretty interesting to rival against our guildmates again—especially since we didn't have much time to experience it during our actual training—but I have my doubts… Loudred can be tough in a fight and he's braver than most, but he hardly ever thinks before he jumps into a situation. He failed his first attempt at the exam and if he has to do anything like what we did for ours, I don't know if he'd pass. I don't think either Ri or myself would've passed if we had to have gone through it alone.

"Don't take him too seriously," Sunflora quips, folding her arms over her chest and shifting her weight to one foot. Ignoring Loudred's annoyed glare, she continues, "It's all rumor right now. We just overheard the Guildmaster and Chatot talking when we came back."

"No, that'd be awesome," Ri replies, shuffling around on the bed to face us better. "Even if it's just rumor right now, it probably means that Wigglytuff's still considering someone for the exam."

I really hope so. For all the freedoms we've gained now that we're full-fledged members of the Guild, it's been a little lonely too. Everyone else we apprenticed with—with the exception of Dugtrio and Croagunk because they're so much older—is still under the Guild's strict curfew. All of them still have their chores and training to do on a daily basis. Even Azalea has to go through everything we did in order to graduate despite being an official member of our team. So, besides each other, Ri and I don't get to spend much time with our friends. We're out on longer, tougher missions: They're still staying close to Treasure Town to take up what personal experience they can between training sessions. We're working with Dusknoir, Grovyle, and Celebi: They're working together until they can strike out on their own just like us. Even though we still stay at the Guild, it's just not the same as it used to be.

My tail beats against the ground as I'm thinking. "Would Wigglytuff tell some of us about the exam?" I look to the Grass-type, "He let you all in on it for ours, right? When you all teamed up against us."

Sunflora giggles a bit at that. "I don't know what you're talking about," she answers, feigning obliviousness. To this day, the Guildmaster swears that we must've been confused when we fought the 'Grand Master of All Things Bad' and won't just come clean. To their credit, all of the others have played along. Shrugging, she then adds, "But there's really no telling with the Guildmaster. He always comes up for something new for every exam. Like Team Slacker—they graduated a few months before Ri ever came to Treasure Town. They had to keep watch over another explorer's nest during the night to make sure their eggs wouldn't get stolen by a… 'thief,' that was running around."

"That doesn't sound so bad," Ri says.

" _Unless_ you're those two," Loudred says, reclining back and proudly jabbing a thumb toward himself, " _and someone_ kept you up the night before on a wild Psyduck chase."

Sunflora grimaces at that, "Not _just_ them—you kept the entire Guild awake!"

I laugh a bit at that, but at the same time I feel a part of myself shrink inside. Everyone's exams sound hard, but for them to be so different and random, Wigglytuff's gotta be tailoring them specifically for each of us. Team Slacker's known for always trying to get a job done with minimal effort and then taking a nap after the fact, so a test where they'd be forced to stay vigilant would be perfect for them. It only makes me wonder more how all of the other apprentices could be tested next.

Finally stepping the rest of the way inside, Sunflora walks over to me and tugs at my arm. "Lira, why don't you join us tomorrow when we go back inside the ruins? You, me, and Chimecho could team up together. It's been a long time since we got to do anything as just us girls."

Before I can give my answer, my partner encourages, "You know you really don't have to stay here with me. I'll be fine."

He doesn't really mean that: He's already somewhat disappointed. And even if he was ok with it, I couldn't do that to him—not with an exploration this big. Besides I don't want to go back down into that part of the ruins until I can sort out some of my feelings about them. If it were the two of us, or if it were Grovyle and me, maybe it'd be different. If she had asked me to do anything else, it probably would've been, but I really don't want to have to look at any of what's down there right now.

"Maybe another time, Sunflora," I raise my shoulders sheepishly, "Let's try to hang out later tonight though. I can come over to your tent."

"A spontaneous sleepover it is then," she nods, "I'll go ahead and let Chimecho know, so you better show up!"

"I try to keep my promises, don't I?" I call after her, but by then she's already disappeared out of the tent and hurried on her way."

Loudred grumbles something quietly to himself before shambling up on his own feet. "I guess you're gonna be free yourself tonight, Ri. Probably means you'll be up talking to the gargantuan Gripper, but if you need anything, you know where to look."

Just like that, we're by ourselves again. With a faint sigh, I remove the Treasure Bag from around my body and push it against the side of the tent before falling back on the hay diagonally from my partner. For a moment, I just keep still: I breathe in the scent of the dry grass and listen contently to the sound of fabric lightly fluttering somewhere outside in the late afternoon wind. If I listen more carefully, I can hear our guildmates in the distance going on about their day. For this rare moment, it's so peaceful that I don't know what to do with the feeling.

Ri lays back down next to me and the hay shifts under us as his body presses against it. His tail whisks my legs and I twitch my leg back as it tickles my foot. "What are you thinking about all of that?" I ask him under my breath. "Ready to have a few more rivals besides Team Salacious?"

At the mention of them, he begins to rub his face with the palm of his hand in a weary motion, "To be honest, I don't really think about having rivals all that much. If Loudred does graduate though, I'd hate to think of what he'd be capable of without someone telling him what to do…"

That's right. Back when we were apprentices, Loudred made it a point to give us a personal wake-up call early in the mornings. At times, he could be a little bossy and simply pin it on the fact that he was in the Guild for a lot longer than we were. After we graduated, he couldn't hold anything over us. When he does eventually get out of his own apprenticeship though, there's no telling what stunts he'll try to pull.

Strangely enough though, I'm almost looking forward to it. It could be fun.

 _Ugh,_ I'm too hot from being outside and too comfortable now that I'm lying down. I don't wanna get back up… It couldn't hurt to doze off for a little while. Somebody will tell us when it's time to eat or if anybody needs anything.

If doesn't take long for me to fall into a calming rest.

* * *

 _I won't lie: Although I don't get nightmares to the same extreme that I used to, they still sneak up on me now and then. I have to treat every dream I have carefully, because who knows if they really are 'just dreams' or if they're actually a memory or vision that carry any clue for me to grasp at. I never have to worry at all about the dreams Cresselia sends us though, because unlike almost all of the others I actually have some control over them._

 _They're hardly ever like the smoke and mirrors that Darkrai used when he was visiting our dreams and pretending to be Cresselia. They're never constant either. Sometimes it's just like we're trapped in our own heads and that she's just using telepathy to speak to us. Sometimes we think we're waking up as normal only to find something about our surroundings distorted in a way that only makes sense in dreams. And sometimes we're back somewhere we've been in the past, or to a made-up place where our dreams fuse and merge together._

 _Tonight, the dream is something like that last one. We're on a hillside looking over plains of tall grass that stretch as far as the eye can see, that roll and bend in the wind like waves along the shore. In contrast, black, naked trees stand like cold monuments wherever they dot the vast landscape, and crystals hang suspended in the air almost like a rainbow of stars you can hold in your hands. The sky is a deformed wash of colors—black, pink, orange, and blue._

 _Ri opens his eyes beside me where we find ourselves lying in the field. He's silent as he slowly takes in his surroundings, then looks back at me after coming to the same conclusion that I have. We help each other stand up._

 _As always, we never have to search for her. "Lira, Ri," the Lunar Pokemon calls to us. We turn around to find her literally radiating with her usual, soft pink glow a few yards away from us—standing under one of the wicked-looking trees. Usually, at least one of two of the others on our team would also be here, but since we fell asleep so early in the day it's unlikely they'll show up._

 _Cresselia can only reach us through our dreams, but still, she normally waits until we can all get together before talking about anything. A sinking dread falls into the pit of my stomach at the fact that she's called us so soon. "How's the search going?" Ri asks, immediately getting to the heart of things. Every empty 'progress' report she gives us only makes the both of us more impatient for answers. "Is there any sign of Darkrai yet?"_

 _But, as usual, she only gives us a dejected shake of her head. "None," she answers. With that, she suddenly looks tired, as if the very mention of Pitch's name pressed down all of the burdens he left behind to the extent of their already massive weight. "I'm still looking for clues near the locations you gave me for the Time Gears, but there's nothing so far. Actually, I've called you for something else entirely. Have any of you witnessed any extreme natural disasters lately?"_

" _You're a little late for warnings," I say for the both of us, "We got swept up in the middle of one of them. No one died, thankfully, but it was pretty bad."_

" _It's the distortions, isn't it?" Ri questions. He takes a step forward, "There's still something wrong with time and space. Is Dialga or Palkia having trouble fixing them? Is there anything we can do?"_

 _Her wings billow to either side of her in a reassuring gesture. "No; no, it's not that. I assure you, both Palkia and Dialga have their domains under control." She looks to the horizon as a strong breeze picks up and pushes against the three of us. The long, jagged branches above us creek with a deep groan as they sway in the air. I watch them for a moment, following their crisscrossing lines as they rake over each other in a battle for space—stretching out with their elongated stems and nodes as if waiting to latch onto whatever falls within their reach._

" _So it's something else this time then," I finally reply. "What have you found?"_

" _Well, yes and no… It's difficult to explain," she hovers a little piece away from us, edging closer to the tree as she takes a few seconds to gather her thoughts. With a deep breath, she continues, "You're both well aware of what kind of power Darkrai wields, as well as the fact that it goes beyond anything normal for our two species. I've said it before that I believe he's drawn on unworldly forces to gain those abilities. Now may be the time to explain—a little bit—of what kind of forces those are."_

 _With a waving motion, she silently tells the both of us to sit down. It's like she's preparing to tell a bedtime story to a couple of small kids. We comply, flattening the grass behind us to sit comfortably and still watch her. Only after we've settled down does she continue:_

" _As you know, long before written history and near the start of creation, a war broke out between the legendaries as they fought over territory across the numerous realms—your world in particular. I don't know the exact details, but that was probably where it all started: During the chaos, a dark power was given life with the ability to not only resonate with the evil and despair that grips the world, but also amplify it. Near the war's end, the legendaries who had made truce at the time were able to largely seal off that energy, but it was too late. It had already contaminated the world and everything in it._

" _The seal… wasn't perfect. Due to the nature of that energy it hinges its existence to every creature, and it continues to seep back into the world like water evaporating from pores. When that energy is called upon, and taken for an abuse of power, it can give the wielder immense strength—but in return it strips away everything they were. Their body, their mind, their will… The individual becomes a slave to that energy._

" _These disasters come with every slip of the world's delicate balance, but their prolonged state makes me believe that that energy may have finally gained a foothold in your realm once again. Darkrai may have summoned it, but I also believe it was his prolonged use of it in attempt to corrupt even greater forces which has allowed it stay. This is just the beginning of something potentially worse to come."_

 _For the long silence and no doubt infinite secrets that she's_ still _keeping from us, Cresselia doesn't hold anything back. I find myself clenching my fists tightly in my lap, rigged from the dark tale I'm hearing. A power like that… Who could even stop it? For whatever abilities any of us on Team Crusade have, I don't think we or any legendary that we've met could do anything about it._

" _So… what comes after the disasters?" Ri asks for the both of us, his voice soft and hesitant with his ears drooped low as he braces himself for her response._

" _Believe it or not, the Dark Future you two experienced was actually a far cry from what might've been," she answers, rattling us both, "There have been cases in the past where that power can manifest into a sentient being—sometimes by itself, but more often from the lingering souls fastened upon the negative energy it feeds on. In the case of the latter, heroes of the past have managed to reach out to whatever light may linger from them in order to separate the two once more. There was a similar event not too many years before your journey to the Temporal Tower, although the situation was largely confined and didn't have much of a chance to spread beyond the Mist Continent. They called it the Bittercold."_

" _And what would've happened if they didn't fix it? What if it couldn't be stopped?"_

" _Then all life would come to an end."_

 _We both say nothing. What is there that we could possibly say?! Maybe it's true that there's some dark energy that lingers in the world, but apparently Darkrai ripped open Pandora's Box and summoned a maelstrom of it! And I sincerely doubt it's just him: There are bound to have been others! Cresselia—if she even_ thought _that he might've done something like this, then_ how in the world is she so calm?! _I can barely keep my thoughts straight! Despite_ — _or rather because of—the chaos lit inside me, I can barely manage to form words when I'm finally able to speak, "Do you have any idea what form it'll take next?"_

" _No."_

" _How long do we have?"_

" _There's no telling. All that we can do for now is work to push back against what energy has already been released."_

" _Raikou…" my partner mutters after a long pause, "Raikou mentioned that the legendary titans could help with the disasters. He helped us find relics in order to command them."_

" _What relics?"_

 _Still hardly able to speak, I show her the Ancient Ring tied to my crystal necklace. Before this, our plan once we found all four treasures was to get into groups and team up against the Regis in case something went wrong. I would've led the group against Regigigas, Ri against Registeel, Grovyle against Regirock, and Dusknoir against Regice; that way, at least one person in each group would have a move with a type advantage against each Regi. Now though, as Cresselia looks at it, I can see a new idea forming in her mind._

" _Yes, this could work…" she says slowly, "Each of these items were no doubt made for their specific titan, but if we could somehow amplify their abilities, we might be able to reach out to a large number—if not all of them—in one swoop. The Regis would surely help with the world's stabilization."_

" _Cresselia," Ri asks carefully, snapping her out of her thoughts, "what do we do?"_

" _Find a way to awaken the dormant titans. There are many, some hidden in parts of the world that I don't even know, so I would suggest you speak to another legendary who may be able to help you." Seeing our crestfallen, hardened faces, she drifts over and cranes her neck between us in solace, then presses her forehead to both of ours. "Stay strong, children: You are not as alone in this fight as you may think. I believe in you."_

 _Things begin to distort like a foggy haze: A sign that either we're waking up or Cresselia is ending the dream herself._

" _I should go, but if you need me I will come to you and—"_

" _No!" I interrupt, pushing myself onto my feet even with how shaky I feel. "No, just keep looking for Darkrai. It's still our best chance to figure out what's going on."_

" _As you wish."_

 _Just another thing to add to all the others that's weighing on my mind… Even still, as a final thought before we lose our chance to talk to her for a long while, I can't help but press her, "Cresselia…? Did you know that humans used to live here, in the Isolated Regions?"_

 _She doesn't answer. Not at first. However, before the dream falls away I, at last, hear, "That's one discussion for another time."_


	11. Recap and Discharge

Ri and I didn't wait to talk to the others about our meeting with Cresselia. That night, as we finished up dinner, we stayed gathered together around the firepit in the center of camp to recap and come up with a plan of action. At first, everyone's pretty quiet about the whole thing. I'm not surprised: We didn't hold anything back. A few minutes into the silence that follows our story, they look to one another worriedly. Loudred—the quietest I've ever heard him—curses under his breath.

Still, you can't keep a group like ours quiet for long. Once the news has finally settled in, everyone erupts into a chaotic chorus of dialogue:

"Hey, hey! First time starts freezing over, then space starts falling apart—what's next?!" Corphfish yells, "The sky's gonna collapse on us too?!"

Dugtrio stiffens in response, "An energy source powerful enough to cause all kinds of these sorts of calamities… How can you stop something that just keeps coming back like that?"

"Oh my gosh!" Sunflora cries, "Well, what do we do?!"

Except for a handful of times, normally this type of news is pretty much dropped on _us_ for the first time right along with them _._ It's hard being on the receiving end of all of the panic for a change as the messengers. I wish there was a way I could reassure them, but I can't. We're at just as much of a loss as they there. Ri's a lot better than I am at rallying a crowd during hard times like this, but even he can't seem to find the words.

Wigglytuff's the first to try to calm everyone back down, "If Cresselia told Ri and Lira to talk to the legendaries about this, then that's what we should do." The Guildmaster then turns to us, "Based on your report, I doubt Raikou could help us much even if we could find him again, and the titans probably won't be the chattiest either. That would make Uxie the next closest to us."

Which means going back to Fogbound Lake. The Guildmaster is right: To get there, we'd just have to travel southward—and we wouldn't have to pass through Craggy Coast like we would if we were coming from the western side of the continent. All of us are still on good terms with the lake guardians too: Uxie would definitely help us out if we needed her.

Chatot pipes in with a firm nod, holding the edge of his wing beneath his beak in thought. "We'll need time to pack up the camp and allow Ri's injuries to heal," he muses aloud, "but we have more than enough supplies for the journey… It should only take us a little less than a week to get there on foot. If we start packing tonight-and can find someone in town to hold our finds until we return—we could leave within three days."

Murmurs of agreement pass over the group. As though that small direction is more than enough for them, some of our guildmates stand up and begin to grab some of our equipment. Ri and I look to each other. It's not like there's any time to waste, so we get up from our seats to join the others. We've barely taken a step away, however, when the Guildmaster waves all of us back over with a stern shake of his head.

"No!" he puffs his cheeks stubbornly, then lowers his arms once he's regained our attention. Resuming his cheerful stature, he explains, "We've done a lot of good work here. In the past few days alone, we've made a lot of progress. It'd be irresponsible to abandon an exploration like this." Again, his eyes settle on Ri and me last, "I think Team Crusade should go alone. This job has more to do with their roles as Guardians than us as explorers anyway: It may take them even farther than any of us can go with them."

"What?!"

The Flying-type's outcry is followed by a wave of protest from the others. Inside, I cringe at the idea. I mean, we've already had to do so much alone, but it's never really been by choice. Now Wigglytuff is actually telling us to _leave them behind._ On our _own_ expedition no less! Just how long does he think this trip is going to take us? Even if they went on ahead back to Treasure Town, we could be back here within a couple weeks at most.

It is then, however, that the Guildmaster turns to Dusknoir. He and Grovyle have both been pretty quiet about everything so far. Given their personalities, I hadn't thought anything of it until now, but then I realize that Celebi hasn't exactly pitched in on the conversation much either. Of course Wigglytuff noticed.

"What do you three think?" he presses them, his typical, warm grin plastered on his face, "What are your thoughts on the situation?"

Grovyle shakes his head, but Dusknoir's gaze drops to the earth in contemplation. It's the familiar attitude I've come to recognize when he's got another one of his 'theories,' or knows something we don't and just doesn't want to talk about it. With everyone's eyes on him though, he can't really brush all of us off. He clears his throat. "I think meeting any of the lake guardians would be helpful, given the circumstances, "he begins, "they have ties to various lands, some of them where we could possibly gather more information on the titans."

"Oh! Like where?"

"Well, that's the problem…" Celebi hovers a step closer, wringing her hands, "A lot of those places are inhabited by humans, so to get there… We'd need to leave the isolated regions."

My fingers lace around my cup in a firm grip. I don't lift the glass: I just need something to hang onto. _More bad news…_ is all I can think, my heart feeling even more like a lead weight sinking into the pit of my stomach. I feel sick. _"Oh no…"_ I voice in a near-silent whisper to myself, loud enough for only my partner to pick it up and give me a concerned glance in response.

I don't want to go back. I don't resent the memories I made there—if I really have to admit it, a part of me actually misses it sometimes—but the whole point of returning to the past was so that I could live out my life _as a Pokemon,_ right here! I _chose_ to give up being human. I can't go back, definitely not after the choices I've made and everything we've learned from these ruins. And then there's the chance of any of us getting caught by trainers. Sure, there are some places where we could sneak around, but we wouldn't be able to avoid them forever. Celebi could get away easily enough—maybe Dusknoir too, since he's a Ghost-type—but Ri, Grovyle, and I would have trouble. We just can't go, especially not when we've got so much to do _here_! Our explorations, helping the Guild, finding Darkrai, finding my parents—!

A hand overlaps my wrist, forcing me to let go of the cup. Ri… I don't look at him, even when he shifts his grip to tenderly take my hand in his own. Scooting sideways, he presses his weight against me comfortingly and I find myself leaning back into him by instinct.

I'm starting to make up more and more excuses: I know I am. Still, I just really don't want to go… There's just so much I see going wrong and so much I personally don't want to deal with right now. It just feels like it's too much. Our roles as Guardians of Light are enough of a mess. I've had to face my past and my humanity, and I'm trying hard to move forward with them little by little—I don't want to be dragged back. I can't shake the feeling that—if we have to face other humans, with everything else we have to maneuver through—it's just going to drag us off-course and muddy things even worse than they already are…

An agitated groan sounds to our left. Loudred rises from his seat and bears his fists alongside his waist. " _Hey!_ So what if you end up doing a bit more travelling than normal? You worried about throwing your back out on a trip like that, old man?"

Diglett stares at his friend with wide eyes, blinks over at the Ghost-type, then stares back at the former again. Bidoof, in the middle of stress-eating, chokes on a piece of an Oran berry. The challenge catches everyone off-guard. Partly because it shatters through the stern atmosphere looming over all of us. Partly because not many of us—me, Grovyle, and _maybe_ Wigglytuff being the only exceptions—wouldn't be brave enough to throw those kinds of words at _Dusknoir._ Not without expecting to get chucked halfway across the desert anyway. Still, Loudred doesn't let up.

"You guys go on your big mission, or whatever it is!" he booms, "Think we can't handle things while your gone?! Don't forget, we were a Guild well before any of you showed up! We can close this expedition and make it home just fine, so _go!_ Let somebody else take the reins on this adventure!"

It's hard for anybody to know what to say to his outburst, so things go quiet again. For about half a minute anyway, then one person snickers. Then the whole group _except_ for Loudred breaks into a fit of laughter.

It's just the kind of thing we needed to lighten to mood, something to make us pause for just long enough to take a deep breath and remember that the world isn't crashing down on us as heavily as we think. We've got time and we're not as lost as we used to be. We've got a plan to move forward: We just have to execute it right. Right… We can manage this, just step-by-step. Make one move at a time.

I'm still anxious, and I squeeze my partner's hand in a tighter grip even as I look around and the laughter begins to die out—only to rise again as Loudred shouts negations at the others with a flushed face of embarrassment at not being taken seriously enough. What steps can we take _now?_ Our team's going to have to pack for a long trip, just in case we don't return here after speaking with Uxie. Either way though, we promised Raikou that we would awaken the titans _here_. Given his attitude towards us in the first place, I'm not going to break that promise. If we just left with any of the treasures we've found, he could see that as an act of betrayal.

"If we're going to move ahead with this…" I say slowly once the chatter has finally dulled, "Then we'll need leave as soon as possible. It's a big favor to ask, but, Guildmaster…?" I look back in Wigglytuff's direction, "Can you please take over our expedition while we're gone? While we talk to Uxie, you all can keep looking for the last of the titan relics."

At last, he seems truly satisfied. His eyes glisten with the energetic gleam of a child's as he nods, "We've got time! Like I said, things have been progressing really fast anyway. We can hold the fort for a little while."

Ri's pleased expression soon shifts into a worried frown, "But that doesn't mean you'll be able to make it through Aegis Cave to reach the titans safely…"

He dips his head down in thought and my ears twitch at the horrific reminder. That's right: We're allowed through the cave because we've already fought the titans and have already been recognized as 'worthy' of being here. _The land itself_ traced our aura in order to unlock the Concealed Ruins. After we leave, the rest of the Guild might not be offered the same protection. I don't even want to think of any of them vanishing to who-knows-where like Team Charm nearly did if they can't beat them.

My partner, however, comes up with the solution just as it pops up into my own mind. "We can write a letter to Team Charm asking them to help us!" he says, "Their auras were marked with ours when we first made it through Aegis Cave, so they should be able to guide everyone else to the titans safely."

To no one's surprise, this thrills pretty much everyone. They didn't stick around for too long before, even when they invited us to go to Aegis Cave with them in the first place. Of course everyone's happy to get another chance to hang out with the famous team. Grovyle nods in agreement, "Good thinking. Waiting for them means that it will take longer for us to set out, but it's better to be cautious."

I grin at the simple praise. We haven't figured out much, but it's enough for now. We can write to each other or have Cresselia pass along messages in our dreams to keep everyone on the same track after we've left Fogbound Lake.

Wigglytuff yet again, however, adds something else to jar me out of the moment's stability. "Azalea," he addresses, looking over to our youngest team member, "you've still got a lot of training to do, but how about you go with them?"

This catches the other five of us on the team off-guard. The Guildmaster's putting it lightly: Azalea's never been through anything like what the rest of us have. We've all got our own, long stories: We've had everything with the time and space incidents, Loudred and Sunflora have faced off against major criminals—even Bidoof's met a Jirachi! Meanwhile, Azalea… She's strong, sure, but she still lacks experience. We've brought her with us on regular jobs before, but we've done what we can to keep her out of anything involving our work as Guardians of Light.

I inwardly wince, reading the mutual discomfort radiating from the others. Only Ri seems to be pretty ok with the idea. Wigglytuff gives us all his typical, obliviously curious glance and I stiffen. By all means, since we've graduated, it's our choice whether or not we bring her along. Still, against our better judgement, we can't say no to him—definitely not to an open recommendation like that.

Azalea never actually answers herself: She just looks to us, waiting for _us_ to give her orders. _I guess we could always send her back to the Guild if things look like they're going to be too dangerous…_ The trip to Fogbound Lake should be a cake-walk and we can always split up later.

"So long as she can keep up, it shouldn't be a problem," says Dusknoir. He's pleasant about it, but it's almost like he's struggling to stay amiable. Ever since he came back to the past with his, he's been nothing but brutally honest with his opinions, so I guess he's a little out of practice with toning them down.

However, it's enough that the rest of us nod along, not really knowing what to say ourselves. Celebi jumps onboard with it the easiest, hiding the rest of our reservations an upbeat return. "Yeah! It'll be a good exercise for you to join us on tougher missions later." she encourages the Gratitude Pokemon, "And it'll give you some more time to practice Magical Leaf with me!"

These few points are all the convincing Azalea needs. She smiles—her eyes lighting up in a way that strikes a familiar chord with me—and looks back and forth between us where we sit scattered around. "Yeah… Yeah, alright! I can keep up! Just watch me!"

With a final, quick recap from the Guildmaster, we wrap things up for the night. Everyone's a little lighter than when we first dropped the news on them, having a plan set before us allowing us to keep going on with business as usual. With his hand still clenched in mine, Ri gives me a small, parting kiss on the cheek before shambling off back to the tent to turn in early for the night. Chimecho, Sunflora, and Azalea won't think anything about it if I'm a few minutes late arriving at their tent: They're probably sorting out the last of their things for the day anyway. So, for a moment, I stand still near the slowly dying campfire and look up at the night sky.

It's calm tonight. There's not a cloud to be seen and the stars glisten like crystals floating on a dark sea. It's beautiful.

It just occurred to me that I didn't often get to see a sky like this when I was a normal human girl. City lights almost always seemed to blind the night itself… Would we really have to go to the human territories? I fold my arms across my chest, bracing against the chill air. _One thing at a time…_ I remind myself.

" _You're looking at a human though."_

" _Am I now?"_

"Lira?"

I look behind me. Like me, a few others also stayed behind. It's Corphish's turn on dish-duty, so he's picking up whatever anyone left sitting out. Diglett and Dugtrio stay huddled by the fire, just enjoying some time together. And then there's Wigglytuff, who grins at me like everything's ok and what we're going through really is just another day for the Guild. I wish I could think like that; I wish that I could just let everything roll off me like water off a Ducklett's back.

"Don't stay up too late, ok?" he beams, "You need your rest to be your best!"


End file.
